^/\nanda

Coomaraswamy
SELECTED LETTERS OF
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Edited by
Al v in Mo o r e , Jr .
and
Ra ma Po o n a mbu l a m Co o ma r a s wa my
INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL CENTRE FOR THE ARTS
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS
1988
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
at 52 years frontispiece
facing page
2. Progress by Denis Tegetmcier, in
Eric Gill, Unholy Trinity, London, Dent,
1942 32
3. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy at 58 years 108
4. An example of Coomaraswamys
manuscriptsletter to Eric Gill 208
5. Coomaraswamys study in his home at
Needham, Massachusetts 258
6. A room in Norman Chapel,
Coomaraswamys home at Broad
Campton, Gloucestershire, about. 1908 328
7. Albrecht Diirers Virgin on the Crescent
from his Life of the Virgin (1511) 362
8. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy at 70 years 440
FOREWORD
In the wake of Ananda Coomaraswamys extensive writings,
volumes of accolades have come forth in praise of his enormous
erudition. But here in these letters for the first time we sec the
man writing intimately about himself; not in an autobio
graphical sense, which he detested, considering such portrai
ture a vulgar catering to illegitimate curiosity (p 25), a
rather ghoulish and despicable trade (p 25). This attitude was
with him, moreover, not a matter of modesty, but one of
principle (p 25). His writing of himself was rather in the sense
of establishing a personal contact with each correspondent
through the painstaking effort of getting a questioner to see the
why and wherefore of his thought processes. Reading these
letters is like looking over his shoulder and watching how his
perceptions and ideas flow.
Eric Gill said it all when he wrote to the Doctor: You hit
bloody straight, bloody hard, and bloody often. For
Coomaraswamy was uncompromisingly honest; thus in a letter
to Albert Schweitzer on this missionarys Christianity and the
Religions of the World: [I] would like to let you know that I
regard it as a fundamentally dishonest work.
Uncompromisingly charitable, as in a six-page letter to a
psychiatrist: Your letter. . .brought tears to my eyes. Yours is
a personal instance of the whole modern world of impover
ished reality. . . You caught the very sickness you were
treating. . . You did not shake off the effluvium from your
fingers after laying on your hands. Pages of appropriate
counsel follow.
And uncompromisingly generous, instanced for example in
his long answers to letters from the Gandhian Richard Gregg
who was seeking clarification on such matters as realism and
nominalism, being and knowing, knowledge and opinion,
being and becoming, rcincarnationist theories, and the question
f psychic residues.
Rama Coomaraswamy had first considered calling this
collection of his fathers correspondence Letters from a Hindu to
His Christian Friends. But although the young Ananda received
the investiture of the Sacred Thread in Ceylon in 1897, he was
cducatcd in England and later lived as a Westerner, and was
Platonist and a Medievalist as much as a Vedantist. And his
correspondents were with few exceptions not religious by
vocation but academicians, albeit of Christian heritage. He
situated his own position as a follower of the Philosophia
Perennis, or if required to be more specific, a Vcdandn.
We sec from these letters that Coomaraswamy was totally
realistic in his assessment of Eastern and Western values. To
Professor F. S. C. Northrup, he says that he tells Western
inquirers: Why seek wisdom in India? The value of the
Eastern tradition for you is not that of a difference, but that it
can remind you of what you have forgotten, adding that the
notion of a common humanity is not enough for peace; what is
needed is our common divinity. Elsewhere he writes that
East and West have a common problem. And he complains
to the German art historian, Herman Goetz, that the great
majority of Indian students in the West arc really disorganized
barbarians and cultural illiterates. The modern young
Indian (with exceptions) is in no position to meet the really
cultured and spiritual European. Again to Northrup, he says,
I am still fully convinced that the metaphysics of East and
West are essentially the same until the time of the Western
deviation from the common norms, when Western thought
shifted (ca 1300) from realism to nominalism.
Now he writes to the New English Weekly, the civilization
that men are supposed to be fighting for is already a museum
piece. Elsewhere: The magnitude of our means and the
multiplicity of our ideas arc in fact the measure of our
decadence. And near the close of his life, in his address
(included here) on the Renaissance of Indian Culture, given
at Harvard on August 15, 1947, he says: our problem is not so
much one of the rebirth of an Indian eulture, as it is one of
preserving what remains of it. This culture is valid for us not so
much bccausc it is Indian as because it is culture. In a letter
addressing the need for a realistic ground of understanding, he
writes that he can sec no basis for such a common understand
ing other than that of the common universe of discourse of the
Philosophia Perennis, which was the lingua franca of all cultures
before the confusion of tongues. And he reiterates time and
again in his letters the necessity for people to turn to the
traditional authorities of our age in order to get their
metaphysical bearings: men like Frithjof Schuon, Rene Guenon
and Marco Pallis.
As foremost heir to Medieval wisdom the Catholic Church
in Coomaraswamys eyes bore a priceless legacy coupled with
an enormous responsibility; and although continually inviting
Christians to share with him in the rediscovery of this treasure,
the Doctor was with few exceptions thwarted by their
incapacity for adequate response. Conversion, they exclaimed,
not reciprocal comprehension, was the only way to salvation.
Please do not pray that I may become a Christian, replied
Coomaraswamy to a nuns entreaties; pray only that I may
know God better every day. And he foresaw what was
coming to the Church when he wrote to another Catholic:
The humanisation, ie, secularisation of scripture accompanies
the humanisation of Christ.
His attitude on an esoteric aspect of Christianity is disclosed
in his words to Eric Gill about a wonderful Mary legend he
has read, saying that there is a Vedic parallel too, where
Wisdom is said to reveal her very body to some. Perhaps you
can print this legend someday, and I could write a few words of
introduction. On the other hand, perhaps the world does not
deserve such things nowadays!
Regarding his own path, Coomaraswamy wrote, I fully
hold that labore est orare and do regard my work as a vocation.
But when I go to India, he said in a letter to Marco Pallis, it
will be to drop writing . . . my object in retiring being to
verify what I already know. Meanwhile, in his seventieth
year he wrote, the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads are daily
reading for me.
These letters convey a constant tone of the Doctors own
self-effacement. He puts forth his principles unflaggingly,
while never putting forth himself, saying he is only an
exponent for the ideas of others: [I] try to say nothing that can
properly be attributed to me individually. To the traditional
Catholic, Bernard Kelley, he wrote: It can only be said that
the mystic is acting selfishly when there really remains in him
a self. The word idiot, he reminds another correspondent,
means virtually one who thinks for himself. And in another
place: Satan was the first to think of himself as a genius.
All this touches on the axis around which Coomaraswamys
later exposition revolved, namely, the postulate of the two
selves or mindsduo sunt in homineand its ineluctable
corollary, on the necessity for self-naughting. With incredible
thoroughness he pursued parallels from Western and Eastern
sources, to Sankaras presentation of Advaita Vedanta, the
doctrine of monism or non-duality. And Coomaraswamys
intransigence regarding the sole true reality of our Higher
Selfthe One and Only Transmigrant, St Pauls not I, but
[the] Christ [that] livcth in mewas compounded by his
insistence on the infallibility of immutable archetype and myth
over mutable accident and history, to the point even of
permitting himself an expression of doubt concerning the
historicity of Christ and the Buddha. In order to situate the
paradox of this tendency to excess at the expense of fact, we
have to remind ourselves that Coomaraswamy found himself
confronting a blind generation with timeless truths, in an age of
impoverished reality wherein most people no longer see
what is beyond their senses. In a world where religion for the
multitude has become equated with moral precepts on the level
of Be good, dear child, the metaphysician felt the need to
repost with the thunder of ultimates on the level of Every
thing will perish save Gods Countenance (Quran xxviii, 88).
To reply that the Doctor could better have struck a happy
medium in these matters is to ask that Coomaraswamy not be
Coomaraswamy.
He admits the Plotinian concept of distinction without
difference in the Noumenal Sphere where all souls are one,
yet in actual exegesis he virtually reduces the human soul to a
process of becoming, without final reality. In part his
emphasis on this point was to refute the popular notion of
reincarnation, currently a dogma in India and one
particularly vexing to him as it lends an exaggerated import
ance to the accidental ego of this man so-and-so, and also
because his insistence on the fallacy of the belief invited
criticism from erudite Hindus who otherwise admired his
writings.
It may be well to state here that reincarnationism derives
from misconceptions of basic Eastern teachings having to do
with the Round of Existence or samsara, this being the
transmigration of souls to other states of existence insofar as the
impurities of ignorance have not been wholly eradicated in
them, that purification which alone leads to enlightenment and
final deliverance from the meshes of existence and becoming.
But this teaching has to be situated in terms of the limitless
modalities and immensities of cosmic time and space (in which
God does not repeat Himself), whereas reincarnationism
credulously reduces transmigration through the multiple states
of the being to a kind of garden-variety genealogy played out
on the scale of this worlds stage.
To a question about a prominent Indian put by S. Durai Raja
Singam, the man who was to become the indefatigable
compiler of Coomaraswamy memorabilia, the Doctor replied
in 1946: [He] is a saint, not an intellectual giant; I am neither but
I do say that those whose authority I rely on when I speak have
often been both. People may think what they like about
whether he was cither, neither, or the two concurrently, but it
cannot be denied that he certainly vehicled an aura of both.
He was fond of quoting St Paul to the effect that God has
never left Himself without a witness. In the traditional
patrimony that Coomaraswamy has handed on we have an
eloquent testimony to this.
Whit a l l N. Per r y
PREFACE
It is both a great privilege and an extraordinary experience to
have selected, and along with Alvin Moore, to have edited the
letters of Ananda Coomaraswamy. One wonders, in the face of
his enormous literary output, how he was able to carry on such
a fruitful correspondence. The number of letters probably runs
to several thousand and one would hope, that over the course
of time many more will turn up. These can, almost without
exception, be divided into four categories: those dealing with
inquiries about works of arteither requests for identification,
evaluation or possible purchase by the Boston Museum; those
responding to or dealing with philosophical or metaphysical
issues; those written to the New England Weekly; and lastly a
handful of brief personal notes to his mother, wife, or children.
There are various reasons why the letters of famous men are
published. In the case of some, they reflect the times they lived
in. Others give insights into the personal life of the author, or
clues as to what induced him to enter the public forum. Still
others are examples of literary artso called belle lettrcs.
Those of Dr Coomaraswamy are none of these. Indeed, what is
extraordinary about them is that they contain nothing personal,
even when written to close friends and associates. He had said
once, in response to a request for an autobiography, that
portraiture of human beings is aswarga, and that such an
attitude was a matter, not of modesty, but of principle. His
letters reflect this attitude.
I have said that there are several thousand letters. Unfortu
nately, not all of these have been collected or collated. Many
have undoubtedly been lost. Thus for example, his own files
show perhaps a hundred letters from Marco Pallis. Unfortu
nately, none of his to Mr. Pallis survive as the latter
consistently destroyed all mail after reading. Again, there are a
targe number of letters to him from Rene Guenon. However,
the Guenon archives have revealed or at least, produced none
from him. Several European and American libraries have letters
from him dispersed in collections of other notables such as
Yeates or Sorokin. Still other letters are archived in private
collections such as T. S. Eliott. Hopefully one response to the
publication of these carefully selected examples will be a more
complete collation, with hitherto unknown examples becom
ing available.
The selection process was fairly simple. All the available
letterscither originals or carbon copieswere read and
classified as to major topics of discussion. These sub groups
were then weeded out so as to avoid excessive length and
repetition. The end result is some 400 letters which can truly be
said to be characteristic.
The remarkable thing about these letters is that each of them
is a sort of mini-essay put forth in relatively easy language.
Despite this, they cover almost every major line of thought that
is developed in his published works. Those who would seek an
introduction to the writings of Ananda Coomaraswamy could
do no better than to start with this book.
It is both fitting and wonderful, that the Indira Gandhi
National Centre for the Arts should select this work as the first
publication in its planned collected works of Ananda Coomara
swamy. If he was a universalist in principle, he was above all an
Indian in his origins and ways of thinking. It had been his plan to
return to India where he intended to continue his works, produce
a translation of the Upanishads, and then take Sanyasa. God
willed otherwise and only his ashes were returned to the land he
loved. Hcnce it isone says it againboth fitting and wonderful
that India should undertake to make available to the world, not
only his letters, but the entire corpus of his works.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Wc wish to acknowledge the co-opcration of all who have
assisted in making this volume possible by providing copies of
Dr Coomaraswamys letters which have been included in this
collection. We thank the University of Minnesota for permis
sion to use the lines from Ray Livingstons The Traditional
Theory of Literature which arc placed in exergue to this volume;
the heirs of Devin-Adair publishers for permission to quote in
the Introduction the paragraph from Eric Gills Autobiography.
Our thanks are due also to Sri Keshavram N. Icngar of
Bangalore, India; Mr and Mrs Eric H. Hansen, Emory
Univeristy, Atlanta, Georgia; Dr Rene Imelee, West Georgia
College, Carrollton, Georgia; and to the librarians and staff
members of the Emory University library and the library of
West Georgia College. And certainly not least, we thank our
respective spouses for their encouragement, patience and
practical help.
Al vin Moor e, Jr .
Ra ma Poona mbul a m Cooma r a swa my
In the late half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth
century scholars from all parts of the world were drawn to the
Asian heritage. Some excavated, others brought to light
primary textual material, and a third group dwelled upon
fundamental concepts, identified perennial sources, and created
bridges of communication by juxtaposing diverse traditions.
They were the pathfinders: they drew attention to the unity and
wholeness of life behind manifestation and process. Cutting
across sectarian concerns, religious dogma and conventional
notions of the spiritual East and materialist West, of monothe
ism and polytheism, they were responsible for laying the
foundations of a new approach to Indian and Asian art. Their
work is of contemporary relevance and validity for the East and
the West. Restless and unsatisfied with fragmentation, there is a
search for roots and comprehension, perception and experience
of the whole. Seminars on renewal, regeneration and begin
nings have been held. The time is ripe to bring the work of
these early torch bearers to the attention of future generations.
The name of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy is foremost
among these pathfindersfor the expanse of his grasp, the
depth of his insights, and for their validity today.
To fulfil the need for renewed search for the whole, as also to
stimulate further work with this free and catholic approach
which is not imprisoned in the walls of ideology, the Kala Kosa
Division of the IGNCA has initiated a programme of publica
tion of works of critical scholarship, reprints and translations.
The criterion of identification is the value of the work for its
cross-cultural perception, multi-disciplinary approach and in
accessibility for reasons of language or on account of being out
of print.
The Collected Works of A. K. Coomaraswamy, thematical
ly rearranged with the authors own revisions, is central to the
IGNCAs third programme in its division of Textual Research
and Publication, Kala Kosa. The present volume of the Selected
Letters of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy commences this series.
The IGNCA is grateful to Dr Rama P. Coomaraswamy for
agreeing to allow the IGNCA to republish the collected works,
and for his generosity in relinquishing claims on royalties.
Alvin Moore, an old associate of Coomaraswamy, has pains
takingly edited the present volume along with Dr Rama P.
Coomaraswamy. We are grateful to both of them. Mr Keshav
Ram Iengar has to be thanked for his life-time devotion, his
interest, and his assistance in proof-reading and preparing the
index.
We also thank Mr Jyotish Dutta Gupta for rendering
invaluable help in the production, Mr K. L. Khosa for
designing the jacket and Mr K. V. Srinivasan for ably assisting
in this project.
Kapil a Vat syayan
Indir a Ga ndhi Na t iona l Cent r e For The Ar t s
INTRODUCTI ON
It seems fitting to introduce these letters selected from the
extensive correspondence of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
with a paragraph from his close friend Eric Gill, Catholic,
artisan, artist and author of distinguished reputation. Gill
wrote, in his Autobiography:
. . . There was one person, to whom I think William
Rothcnstein introduced me, whom I might not have met
otherwise and for whose influence I am deeply grateful. I
mean the philosopher and theologian Ananda Coomara
swamy. Others have written the truth about life and religion
and mans work. Others have written good clear English.
Others have had the gift of witty expression. Others have
understood the metaphysics of Christianity, and others have
understood the metaphysics of Hinduism and Buddhism.
Others have understood the true significance of erotic
drawings and sculptures. Others have seen the relationships
of the good, the true and the beautiful. Others have had
apparently unlimited learning. Others have loved; others
have been kind and generous. But I know of no one else in
whom all these gifts and all these powers have been
combined. I dare not confess myself his disciple; that would
only embarass him. I can only say that no other living writer
has written the truth in matters of art and life and religion
and piety with such wisdom and understanding.
This citation gives a very discerning insight into the character
of the mature Coomaraswamy. But one may, quite properly,
want to know something more of the life and circumstances of
this son of East and West who corresponded so widely and who
left so many letters that are deemed worthy of publication even
after so many years. Moreover, what could a non-Christian
have to say that could be of any possible interest to the serious
Christian?
The writer of these letters was born in 1877 in Colombo,
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), of a Tamil father and an English
mother. The father, Sir Mutu Coomaraswamy, was a particu
larly able member of an outstanding Tamil, Hindu family that
had been long settled in Ceylon but which had retained its ties,
especially religious ties, with India. Sir Mutu was the first
Asian and the first Hindu to be called to the bar in Britain, in
1863, and a man whose personal presence and achievement
gained for him an entrance into upper social circles in England.
He counted Disraeli among his friends, eg, and Disraeli even
took him as model for one of his fictional characters. The
mother was Elizabeth Clay Beeby, of a Kent family prominent
in the India and Ceylon trade. The couple had been married in
1875 by no less an ecclesiastic than the Archbishop of
Canterbury. This was certainly no casual miscegenation, such
as had been all too common and even encouraged in colonial
India; on the contrary, it was the purposeful union of two
strong minds and independent spirits. But an interracial
marriage is not likely to be easy; and, over a hundred years ago,
the couple must have faced distinct difficulties both among the
Victorian English and in the East among orthodox Hindus.
The young Ananda, however, was to combine in himself the
better qualities of both races. He was himself to become ritually
one of the twice-born among the Hindus, and he was to grow
into an apostle of the traditional East (now no longer
identifiable geographically) to men hungering and thirsting for
spiritual and intellectual sustenance in the meaningless wastes
of the modern world. Remarkably, and only to a slightly lesser
degree, he was an apostle of the traditional West as well; for he
was intimately familiar with the corpus of Medieval Christian
philosophy, theology, literature and art, as well as with
Platonism and Neoplatonism.
In 1877, after two years in Ceylon and the birth of her son,
Lady Coomaraswamy, not yet thirty, returned to England for a
visit. Sir Mutu was to follow but, tragically, died on the very
day he was to have sailed from Colombo. It was thus that the
young mother and her child remained in Britain. The young
Ananda was educated in England, first at home, then at a public
school (Wycliffe, in Gloucestershire), and finally at the Uni
versity of London which he entered at eighteen. He graduated
from the latter in 1900 with' honors in botony (gardening was a
lifelong interest) and geology. Later, his university was to
award him its doctorate in science (1906) for his work in the
mineralogy of Ceylon; for between 1902 and 1906 the young
scientist had worked in the land of his birth, making the first
mineralogical survey of the island. His competence as a scientist
is indicated by the fact that he identified a previously unknown
mineral, serendibite. And characteristically, he chose not to
name it after himself, which he would have been fully entitled
to do. Much of this original work done by Coomaraswamy is
still in use.
Survey activities required extensive field work, and Coomara
swamy found these duties particularly congenial. His con
tinuing presence in the field gave him numerous occasions to
move among the Tamil and Sinhalese* villages, especially the
latter, and to observe rural life and the practice of the local
crafts; and notably, to observe the blighting effect of the
European presence on indigenous culture and values. One
of his early concerns was a campaign to encourage the use
of traditional dress in preference to European clothing, in
which many Asiansparticularly womenoften looked so
awkward.
Moving between England and Ceylon as he frequently did,
Coomaraswamy had numerous opportunities for travel in
India. He did so in 1901, again in 1906, and more extensively in
1910-1911. Already in Ceylon he had been active in social
reform and educational movements, and he figured prominent
ly in the campaign to found a national university in that
country. It was a natural step to pursue related interests in
India, which he was coming to view as cultural macrocosm to
Ceylons microcosm. In India his interests shifted towards
Indian nationalism and its written expressions, and then
towards a personal survey of the arts and artifacts of the
subcontinent. He began collccting extensively but discrimina
tingly in folk music, and especially in miniature paintings. In
fact, early on, he gained an international reputation on the basis
of work begun in this inception of his professional life. Later,
he offered his superior collection of Indian miniatures to the
country if a national museum could be built to house them; but
when funds were not forthcoming for this purpose, he brought
* The Sinhalese, generally Hinayana Buddhists, are the majority in the
population of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The encrgctic and enterprising Tamils,
generally Hindu, arc Dravidians from adjacent South India and are the
largest minority group in the island nation, where they have been settled for
many centuries.
the collcction to the United States where it is housed primarily
at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Medieval Sinhalese Art, his first major publication, was a book
for which he did not only the field work (assisted by his wife
Ethel), but which he personally saw through the pressthis
latter being William Morris old Kclmscott Press which had
come into Coomaraswamys possession. This book is testi
mony not only to Coomaraswamys competence as art
historian, but also to a high degree of personal and methodolo
gical discipline. A second major publication was his Rajput
Painting (1916), which bore the lengthy subtitle: Being an
Account of Hindu Paintings of Rajasthan and the Punjab* Himalayas
from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century Described in Relation
to Contemporary Thought with Texts and Translations. All this is
cited to make a specific point: the phrase described in relation
to contemporary thought offers an important key to
Coomaraswamys approach in many of his more profound
studies written in later years. He would, eg, present a painting,
a sculpture, a weapon or a ritual object and on the basis of the
relevant Scriptural or other texts offer erudite and profound,
lucid and highly concentrated expositions of the ideas of which
the artifact was, so to speak, a palpable representation. This
approach implies the nullity of the precious distinctions that arc
commonly assumed to distinguish the fine from the applied
arts, for traditionally the governing rules and manners of
production arc the same. All appearances proceed from the
interior outwards, from the art and science of the artist to the
artifact; and, Ultimately, from an uncreated and principal
Interior to the manifested or created order, from God to the
world. The manner of this divine operation, in final analysis, is
the paradigm of the artist as practitioner. There can be no
traditional justification for an art that imitates nature only in her
external aspects, natura naturata, mere fact: nor for an art that
aims only at aesthetic pleasure; and even less for an art
conceived as nothing more than the expression of the individual
artist, ic, vulgar exhibitionismnot to mention surreal art,
* At the time Coomaraswamy was travelling and collccting in Rajasthan and
in the Punjab, the latter was a much larger entity than it is today, for it has
undergone several divisions. It then consisted of the areas that are now
included in the Punjab province of Pakistan, Indian or East Punjab, and the
Indian states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
which is an eruption of the subconscious into the waking state,
like a nightmare experienced at midday.
There were themes that Coomaraswamy reiterated in season,
out of season. They represent intuitions that were with him
from the beginning, but their eloquent articulation which was
to characterize his later writing was not arrived at suddenly; he
worked his way to this undoubted extended mastery. One very
important step in this maturation was the invitation extended
to him in 1917 by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to become
Keeper of their Indian collections. So it was that at the age of
forty, uncomfortable in the Britain that frowned upon his
Indian sympathies, and already with an international reputa
tion, Coomaraswamy accepted the American offer and began
the association with the Boston Museum and the United States
that endured thirty yearsuntil his death in 1947. His tenure
was by no means a sinecure, but the Boston Museum did
provide both the necessary freedom and the favorable ambiance
for the flowering of one of the most wide-ranging and
profoundcst intelligences that have ever worked in the United
States. In Boston, Coomaraswamy settled in for years of work
in collections development, in technical studies, in writing; and
generally in making known the results of his findings and
thinking on an intensely learned level, but also as occasion
offered, on more popular levels, eg, in radio talks and in public
lectures. But he conceived of his vocation as primarily
addressing the learned, as being a teacher to teachers, believing
that thereby the impact of his work might be the greater. He
wrote to Eric Hill that . . . it is a matter of definite policy on
my part to work within the academic . . . sphere: this is
analagous to the idea of the reform of a school of thought
within, instead of an attack without. . . . His wife,
Dona Luisa, recalled his rhetorical question: What would I
have ever done without my doctorate? His credentials and his
achievements won for him a hearing; but especially in his later
years when his writing was more profound and his expression
more uncompromising, it was a hearing for views that were
* By contrast, his contemporary and friend Rerie Guenon worked in
pioneering isolation and let pass no opportunity to disparage academe,
especially the official Orientalists. As a conscqucnce, only within the last
dccadc or so has the scholarly world begun to take note of this body of work
which, quite simply, can no longer be ignored.
anything but popular and that were particularly at variance
with conventional opinion typifying the secularist mentality so
prevalent among the educated.
The author of these letters considered himself a Hindu;
moreover, he is recognized within this tradition as an orthodox
exponent of Hindu doctrinc. The word orthodox is used
here in its proper sense of one who is sound or correct in
doctrinc and opinion; one whose expositions reflect, not willful
personal views, but a homogeneity of thought proper to the
spiritual perspective of the Tradition from which he speaks. It
may be noted that of all the extant traditional forms, Hinduism
is the oldest and is thus considered nearest the Primordial
Tradition. Hinduism is also the most universal, including
within its fold almost all the perspectives which have, mutatis
mutandis, been more specifically developed in one of the other
orthodox Traditions. As an outstanding scholar, Coomaras
wamy was familiar with the traditional writings and perspec
tives of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, the doctrines of the
American Indians, the Platonists and Neoplatonists; and
especially those of Hinduism and Christianity. Indeed, he had
dreamt of writing, as he said, con amore about the latter.
Coomaraswamy was on the side of the angels, a pre-eminent
witness to the ineluctable priority of Intelligence. He was one
of three remarkable men* whose Heaven sent vocations have
been, in varying degrees and foci, to recall to a secularized and
dispirited contemporary humanity what and who man is, what
it means to be man, and what is mans proper destiny.
Coomaraswamy was a universalist in that he understood and
believed totally in the transcendent unity of religions**. It
follows that he did not believe that the Christian Revelation
* The other two arc Frithjof Schuon and Rene Guenon, whose names
(especially the latter) appear from time to time in these letters, and whose
published works are mentioned in the bibliographical section at the end of
this volume.
** The Transcendent Unity of Religions is the title of the first major work of
Frithjof Schuon which appeared in 1948 (the original French edition). T. S.
Eliot, then with Faber and Faber, London, which published the first English
translation, gave a very favorable endorsement of the book. It is a landmark
with which Coomaraswamy would have been in full agreement. Note that
the operative word, however, is transcendent; Schuon never minimizes the
genuine differences which providentially and necessarily separate the several
traditional forms.
was the sole initiative of Heaven towards mankind, but rather
that the Incarnation of Jesus Christ was one descent among
numerous others of the Eternal Avatar, the Logos, the Divine
Intellect. Nevertheless, he wrote: . . . my natural growth,
had I been entirely a product of Europe and known no other
tradition, would ere now have made me a Roman [Catholic],
p 80, letter to Eric Gill). But he did know more than one
tradition and this was a condition of his immense value to us.
He could respond to the nun who wrote, urging him to join the
Roman Church: I am too catholic to be a Catholic. For he
had comc to understand that it is the essence and not this or that
modality of religion that is immutable, a perspective which
made him prefer the word religion, singular, to religions, plural;
or, as . . . I should prefer to say, forms of religion, (p 81).
Like his contemporary, Rene Guenon, however, he did not
always make sufficient allowance for the necessary exclusiv-
isms which separate one traditional form from another, nor for
the distinctions, fully justified on their own levels, which
separate the exoteric and esoteric realms. But perhaps this is
understandable in some measure, as being a function of his
remarkable intellectual penetration of the several Traditions,
Christianity and Hinduism especiallya penetration much
deeper than that of even above average contemporary theolo
gians.
As regards linguistics alone, eg, Coomaraswamy could say:
I should never dream of making use of a Gospel text without
referring to the Greek, and considering also the earlier history
of the Greek words employed. . . . He was editor for
Gcalic and Icelandic entries for Websters dictionary, having as
a young man done a translation of the Voluspa from the
Icelandic of the Elder Edda. Among the classical languages, he
knew Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Pali and routinely used them
in his work; in addition, he knew some Persian and Chinese.
Among the modern languages, he knew French, German and
Hindi as well as being a master of English. The modern
languages have undoubtedly suffered qualitative attenuation in
the process of their steady accommodations to our prevailing
horizontal and centrifugally oriented mind-sets; but Coomara
swamy demonstrated that a master can compensate for this in
large measure and give expression to the most profound and
subtle ideas even in languages that have not been used in
speculative* writing for centuries. At this point, one cannot but
recall the first Pentecost and the gift of tongues (Acts ii,
2-11) when the Apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit, spoke so
as to be heard and understood by pilgrims from all nations
under Heaven**a kind of reversal of the malediction of
Babel. The work of Coomaraswamy has something of this
pentecostal qualityin the original, not in the sectarian
senseimplying some measure of inspiration by the Spirit of
Truth, some degree of contact with the suprapersonal Intellect.
Spiritus ubi vult spirat, the Spirit blowcth where it listeth (Jn
iii, 8). It is thus that the most profound conceptions can be
articulated with all requisite authority when the proper
occasion demands it; and it is thus that these conceptions cannot
be the exclusive property of any particular segment of
humanity. In his own case, Coomaraswamy prescinded from
this obvious unity in diversity to say: What I regard as the
proper end of Comparative Religion is the demonstration of
fundamental truths by a cloud of witnesses.*** And it was in
this vein that he demonstrated the most striking parallels, eg, in
the writings of St Thomas Aquinas and the Hindu shruti and
smriti, *** and not only as between these by any means.
Speaking as a Hindu (and, one might add, as a Platonist), and in
* The word speculative can serve as a convenient example of precisely this
attenuation. The primary modern sense, when not referring to financial
manipulations, has to do with fantasy or imaginative thinking severed from
existential and especially palpable realities. Originally and etymologically,
the word refers to intellectual realitiesthe same yesterday, today, and
foreverand the capacity of the human intelligence to understand these
realities.
** Coomaraswamy would have noted that the heaven in question was that as
conceived by the ancient Mediterranean world. But he would have been
quite certain that the Christian Scriptures are in no way diminished when we
recognize that there were no Chinese, Red Indians or Incas among the
Apostles auditors.
*** A powerful apologetic tool is neglected more often than not when
Christians fail to make use of the probable evidences available in
non-Christian traditions. It is somewhat as if St Thomas had rejected
Aristotle.
**** Shruti, in Hinduism, is the highest degree of Revelation, being direct
contact with Divine realities. Smriti derives its authority from the shruti via
reflection, comparable in this respect to certain aspects of the Epistles of St
Paul. Among the parallels Coomaraswamy found as between the Hindu
Scriptures and Christian doctrine, we may mention that of the one Essence
the face of Christian exclusivism, he could saywith great
caritasI am on your side, even if you arc not on mine.
Obviously, all the several Traditions have their respective
points of view vis-a-vis the theses stated or implied above, and
we cannot pursue these here. We must limit our remarks to
contemporary Christianity as it is seen and known about us. At
first slowly but steadily, and now at a rapidly accelerating pace,
we have seen the Faith enter into a decline: intellectually and
conceptually, artistically, socially and morally. And now today
one sees an astonishing convergence of what is taken to be the
Christian message (and which is often only caricature at best)
with a frank worldlincss. On a merely extrinsic reckoning,
Christianity has long since ceased to be a formative influence in
modern life (individual exceptions granted), having become
itself a followerof secular humanism, progress, evolution
ism, scientism and other fashionable and more or less ephemer
al trends. Multitudes of those who should normally be
Christian have deserted the Faith. Not a few of these have taken
to strange cults, which, in our decaying culture as in ancient
Rome, proliferate like flies. Others have turned to one or
another of the Oriental religions, a move which often affords
occasions of ridicule by those less in earnest or
momentarilyin less apparent need. It must be admitted,
however, that in all too many cases the forms of Oriental
religion accessible in the West* are of doubtful soundness
though there arc clear and definite exceptions. In these last
times, when we find Christian spokesmen expounding all
manner of strange notions from within the Church and the
Churches, when the Christian vocabulary and idiom arc widely
used to disguise non-Christian and even counter-Christian
purposes, it is most appropriate that Dr Coomaraswamys
letters to his learned friends should be made public. For as Ray
Livingston said in the lines cited in exergue above: Let it be
noted . . . that Coomaraswamy cannot be lumped with those
and two natures, the role of the Word and the primordiality of sound, and
the procession and return of creatures.
* As for Hinduism itself, it is not a proselytizing faith and the non-Hindu
does not have the option of converting to Hinduism, entry into which is by
birth into one of the four traditional castcs. This says all that need be said
here about the so-called Hindu sects which have been so conspicuous in the
West.
swamis* of East or West, or like types, who peddle a bogus
spirituality that is vague, delusory and deceitful . . . . Coomar
aswamy had no designs on us . . . except to return us to the
sources of our own wisdom.
Coomaraswamy had found in art a window onto the
Universal; and from a maturing interest in art as illustrative of
ideas, particularly metaphysical ideas, in the last fifteen years or
so of his life his primary interest was in the ideas themselves: in
the metaphysical doctrine that is the heritage of humanity as
such, ideas which embody those principles by which civiliza
tions rise and fall and which are variously expressed in the
several traditional formsuna veritas in variis signis, variae
resplendet, ad majorem gloriam Dei, one truth in various forms,
variously resplendent, to the greater glory of God, an
aphorism which Coomaraswamy liked to quote. It is in this
area, as metaphysician and comparative religionist, that
Coomaraswamy can and should be of the greatest interest
to those willing to make the effort involved in following his
dialectic, namely those whose powers of attention and concen
tration have not been utterly vitiated by the host distractions
whichpurposely, it would seempermeate modern life. He
can be instrumental in helping restore some sense of the
transcendent dimension to ones understanding of a Christian
ity which, officially, has all too often become worldly, banal
and insipidin the Gospel expression, unsavory.
There are doubtless some who would criticize Dr Coomara
swamy as an elitist, though in the nature of things such
judgements can have little intrinsic force or significance. For
there are men (and, of course, women, too, for man and men
cover all humanity)there are men, we say, who have superior
intellectual and spiritual gifts, far above the average, so much
so that a common humanity serves only to cloak for the
undiscerning the fact that interiorly men can differ almost as
much as angels from animals. God giveth without stint to
whom He will, says the Quran. And to some Heaven has
given the vocation, appointed the task of recalling men to their
inalienable spiritual and intellectual patrimony. Ananda
Coomaraswamy was one of these few; men with whom
* The word swamy is itself a perfectly respectable honorific, and it was
evidently incorporated into the Coomara family name at some point, as is
not uncommon in India.
Heaven docs . . . as we with torches do, not light them for
themselves. The first fifty years or so of his life were almost as
a period of training for the last decade and a half. During that
latter period he was consumed in the effort to recall the modern
world, through those scholars whom he specifically addressed,
to the intellectual/spiritual birthright that has been abandoned,
to a saner manner of life, a life that might take due account of
the whole man and especially of the claims of the Inner Man,
the Man in cveryman (a phrase he often used). Our task is to
know who and what we are; because we, being manifold, have
the duty to appraise ourselves and to become aware of the
number and nature of our constituents, some of which we
ignore as wc commonly ignore our very principle and manner
of beingto adapt words of Plotinus (Enneads VI.7.14).
Coomaraswamy took his calling quite seriously; nevertheless,
he was far from being puritanical or shrunken; indeed, the
humane amplitude of the man was inescapable and remarkable.
He believed that living according to Heaven-given designs
assured not only the fullest possible happiness in this life, but
also plenitude of joy and perfect fulfillment outre tombe. One of
the great weaknesses he perceived in religion in the modern
West was the wide tendency (since his death, greatly accentu
ated) to reduce the claims of religion to merely social and
ethical considerations, ie, the most external and derivative
aspects of a Tradition. He saw that religion needs to return to
doctrine, and this in a more profound sense than anything
Christianity has known since the Middle Ages.
What we need is the revival of Christian dogma. This is
precisely where the East is of use and help. I have been told
by Catholics that my own work has given them renewed
confidence, which is just the effect it should have . . . ethics
have no power of their own . . . they become a mere
sentiment and do little or nothing to better the world.
Further, following St Thomas and other traditional doctrines,
he distinguished faith, which is an intellectual virtue in its
intrinsic nature, from mere . . fidcism which only amounts
to credulity, as exercised in connection with postulates, slogans
and all kinds of wishful thinking.
Should one doubt Coomaraswamys sincerity in all the
positions he advocated, there are several tests one might apply.
Whitall Perry mentioned several in his Forewordthe mans
honesty, his generosity, his self-effacement. In this latter,
Coomaraswamy is reminiscent of Plotinus, who refused to
allow his portrait to be painted on the grounds that no one
could benefit from the image of an image. Additionally, one
might consider Coomaraswamys indefatigable labours spread
over many years, and his large indifference to copyright
interests as regards his own work. The man was essentially
disinterested.
We have commented on Coomaraswamy the metaphysician,
on his comprehensive view of man and the world, on his vast
erudition. These qualities are as valuable today, probably more
so, as when he wrote; before, be it noted, the II Vatican
Council and its devastating aggiomamento with the accompany
ing public eruption of modernism into the heart of Christianity.
Were there no shortcomings in the man? Is this brief sketch
mere extravagant hagiography, simply a litany of praise? It is
yes to the first and no to the second question. Whitall Perry has
noted several aspects of Coomaraswamys ruling perspectives
that do require qualification; and there are a few additional
points that need to be made in this connection. When
Coomaraswamy wrote, he found that available translations of
Oriental texts and expositions of traditional doctrine were
usually inadequate at best and commonly little better than
caricatures. Skeptics, non-believers, nominalists and rational
ists, on the basis of no more than a presumed linguistic
competence, set themselves to translate and expound the most
abstruse texts and doctrines of the traditional East; and, not
surprisingly, the results betrayed the originals. But in the half
century since Dr Coomaraswamys death, this situation has
changed substantially, thanks in no small part to the efforts of
AKC himself. It is not that there are no longer inadequate trans
lations nor expositions that delude: it is rather that due to the
efforts of a number of traditionalists: men like Rene Guenon,
Titus Burckhardt, Marco Pallis, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and
especially Frithjof Schuon, as well as those of AKC and a few
others of like mind and inspiration, there now exists a very
respectable body of expository and interpretative work in
which we have a touchstone for judgement.* Let it be noted,
too, that the traditional East has continued to play a necessary
* See bibliographical section at the end of this collection for further
suggestions. Note, too, that translations, however good, seldom rise to the
and positive role in reintroducing to the modern West essential
conceptions of the metaphysical and traditional order, concep
tions which had been forgotten or allowed to lapse within the
Christian West. So when Coomaraswamy expressed the view
that one had to have command of the relevant classical
languages in order to understand the Oriental doctrines, he was
speaking in isolation, before most of the published work of the
above named men. The works of these latter, along with those
of Coomaraswamy (including these letters), can be of inestim
able value for anyone who sincerely wishes to effect . a
metanoia, a thorough change of mind. Insensibly, those things
which our world rejects [can] become the standard by which
we judge it.
We should note also that Coomaraswamy was on shaky
ground when he occasionally asserted, in effect, that any object
can be beautiful in its kind; eg, a mechanical device, even a
bomb. To accept this would be tantamount to the denial of
beauty as a divine quality and to confuse it with mere artifice
and prettiness. But on the basis of the Doctors own inclusive
statements on art and on the nature of beauty, we believe that
the above views do not represent his final and considered
positions but rather were adopted ad hoc for the purpose of
making a particular point.
A few more extensive comments arc in order as regards
missionary activity*, which often irritated Coomaraswamy
and which he often castigated. But Christianity, like Buddhism
and Islam in this, is inherently a missionary religion. This stems
from the post-Resurrection injunction of Christ to go. . . un
to all nations. . ., and the resulting attitude typified in St
Pauls woe is me if I do not preach the Gospelpositions
which, until quite recently, have been considered as defining
the essential Christian attitude in these matters. The rest is a
question of qualification, opportunity and sincerity. Approx
imately from the time of World War II, however, the character
of Christian missionary activity has undergone fundamental
changes. Power relationships are no longer the same. Peoples
level of the originals; so nothing said here should be taken to imply that
competence in the original languages is not a great boon in the effort at
understanding.
* These remarks may serve also as indirect comment on the presumed
superiority of all things Western, Christianity included, and how any
basiseven illusoryfor these presumptions has evaporated.
among whom missionaries most often work now live in their
own nation-states and, needless to say, exercise their own
controls according to their own lights. The example of a
decadent WestEurope and Americahas served to undercut
the assumptions of superiority and mission ciuilisatrice which in
the past have undeniably been elements in missiology, and
which have been attitudes often shared by the natives. More
fundamentally the rationale of missions has changed from
within. In Catholic circles, the views of Teilhard de Chardin
and his all-encompassing evolutionism have become a major
influence. Similar outlooks are to be found in Protestant
missiology, along with the widespread view that those to
whom missionaries are sent have themselves something to
teach the missionaries and those who support the missionary en
terprise.* There is a frank recognition of the part previously
played by cultural imperialism, and a deemphasis on
conversion. The modern missionary takes man as he is found,
including his cultural ambiance; no more of the missionary is
first of all a social reformer. The whole man, as currently
conceived to be sure, must be taken into consideration, soul
and body; and the latter is taken to include economics and
politics. What, then, of the basic motives for missionary
activity? For it is recognized that the old motives have been
seriously weakened since World War II and especially since
Vatican II. One current motive is charity, but a charity
humanistically conceived, more along the lines of caring and
obviously something far removed from an informed caritas.
Another motive is that of witnessing. And yet another is the
search for truth which, of course, entails much dialoguethat
interminable sink of humanistic endeavors. Obviously, not all
these points are ill-taken; but it is equally obvious that none of
them, singly or combined, can be of such a nature as to set
peoples afire for Christianity. And this apparent digression will
have served its purpose if it has suggested something of the fatal
moderateness and tepidity of a Christianity that has lost touch
with its most fundamental roots; a Christianity, indeed, that is
busying itself in auto-destruction, to adopt an expression of
Paul VI. We would do well, as we reflect on Coomaraswamys
* It is interesting that these views have been put forward principally by a
Dutch Catholic member of a missionary order, the White Father, Henri
Nouwen.
attitudes to call to mind Christs own views on proselytizing
(Mt xxiii, 15). In any case, one can conceive of few peoples
more in need of genuine religion than those of modern Western
nations.
In principle, there is nothing lacking to Christianity. Even
though outwardly it has been primarily bhaktic or devotional in
character, Christianity contains legitimate and essential ele
ments which Coomaraswamy, for one, has compared to an
Upanishad of Europe. Christianity is a full Revelation,
addressed to a particular sector of humanity; our task, as
workers of the eleventh hour is to fathom its profundities once
again insofar as this may be possible and, hopefully, sense
something of That which led St Paul to exclaim: O the depth
of the riches, the wisdom and the knowledge of God! (Rom
xi, 33).
Our purpose, then, in offering these letters is to help
reintroduce Western readers and especially Christians to their
own proper Tradition, to point out to them again the
well-springs of our faith, and to offer some small glimmer of
the splendour of Truth. For those whose interest is comparative
religion, it is hoped that they may find reflected in these letters
both the need for strict personal honesty and a recognition of
the fact that because a common Truth is to be found in the
several traditional forms, this Truth must therefore be lived all
the more deeply in ones own. Lastly, it is hoped that those
who look eastwards (not always an illegitimate option) will
seek proper authority and ignore the proselytizers of a
neo-Hinduism, a chic-Zen, or a deracinated Sufism. And we
invite all who will to reflect on the ways of Heaven, which are
often mysterious or at least dimly understood: a man who was
in many respects superior to the exclusivisms which separate
and define the several religions, even a Hindu, had the
remarkable function of serving as an able defender of the
integral Christian faith. The Holy Spirit, who moves as and
where He will, breathes across boundaries which in normal
times and with good reason separate the different Traditions. In
our indigence, let us not be too proud to accept grace and help
from whatever quarter they may be proffered.
Al vin Moor e, Jr
Ra ma Poona mbul a m Cooma r a s wa my
THE LETTERS
To STANLEY NOTT
Dear Mr Nott:
. . . The problem of the spiritual East versus the material
West is very easily mistaken. I have repeatedly emphasized that
it is only accidentally a geographic or racial problem. The real
clash is of traditional with antitraditional concepts and cultures;
and that is unquestionably a clash of spiritual and ideological
with material or sensate points of view. Shall we or shall we not
delimit sacred and profane departments of life? I, at any rate,
will not. I think if you consider Pallis Peaks and Lamas you will
see what I mean. I think it undeniable that the modern world
(which happens to be still a western world, however fast the
East is being westernized) is one of impoverished reality, one
entleert of meaning, or values. Our contemporary trust in
Progress is a veritable fideism as naive as is to be found in any
past historical context.
Very sincerely,
Mr Stanley Nott, Harpenden, Herts, England, was in correspondence with
Dr Coomaraswamy about a new edition of The Dance of Shiva which Faber
and Faber, London, was considering.
Peaks and Lamas, see Bibliography.
To RICHARD ETINGHAUSEN
August 16, 1942
Dear Richard:
Very many thanks for your kind words. I am glad of the last
sentence in the first paragraph. As you realize, I have never
tried to have a style but only to state things effectivelyso
that I was very pleased, too, once when Eric Gill wrote to me:
You hit bloody straight, bloody hard, and bloody often.
I think our valuation of literature (and of art generally) is
now fetishistic, the symbol being more important to us than its
reference: this is just what the Sufi calls idolatry.
With best regards,
Dr Richard Ettinghausen was Director of the Freer Gallery of Art,
Washington, D. C.
Eric Gill, well known Catholic writer and artist; sec Introduction above.
For an understanding of the word Sufi the reader is referred to the writings of
Frithjof Schuon (see Appendix A) and the Kashf al-Mahjub by Ali bin
Uthman al-Hujwiri (sec Bibliography).
To MRS MARGARET F. MARCUS
undated
Dear Margaret:
What impresses me about contemporary education is the
vacuity of the result, and above all, the isolation produced: it is
the almost invariable result that Plato, Dante, the Gospels,
Rumi, the Upanishads, Lao Tzu, etc, no longer mean anything
to the college product who is brought up to be an aesthete
(euphemistically, an aesthctician) so that all these things are
just literature for him, and he never puts his teeth into them,
but remains a provincial.
Our present chaotic condition is primarily a chaotic state of
mind, and only secondarily a chaotic state of morals. Please
note, I am not talking of you in particular; and that there are
some exceptions, some who survive a college education is
certain. What 1despise is the so-called intellectual honesty
that makes college men unbelievers; Sheldon calls this
honesty by its right name, cowardice.
In every procedure, faith must precede experience; as in
Buddhism, a man has only the right to be called faithless
when he has verified the outcome by acting accordingly; then
he has no need of faith and is explicitly no longer a man of
faith. Faith is an aristocratic virtue; as an old gloss of Plato
remarks, unbelief is for the mob, skepticism is very easy.
This is not merely a religious position. The greater part of all
our everyday actions rest on faith. We have faith that the sun
will rise tomorrow (any serious scientist will tell you that we
do not know it will), we act accordingly, and when tomorrow
comes, we verify the expectation. . . . Some (like Traherne,
Buddhist Arhats, etc) claim to have achieved this felicity or
eudaimonia (as Aristotle, etc, call it), which all religions arc
agreed in regarding as mans final aim. Traherne also callcd it
51/p^human virtue for which all should strive. If you dont want
it, that is all right, but you cannot call it unattainable unless you
have practised what those who claim to have attained it taught;
just as you cant know that 2H + O = H2O until you have
made the experiment (until then you believe your teacher). If
you dont want it, so be it; but this very not wanting excludes
you from any sympathetic understanding of the greater part of
the worlds literature which has to do with the quest.
It is not intellectual honesty, but pride, that makes the college
man not want. You believe in yourself; but for the real value
of this self vide Jung and Hadley and others of your own trust
ed psychologists who affirm, as the religious philosophies do,
that the first sine qua non for happiness is to have got rid of this be
lief in ones own individuality or personality (our great pos
sessions). I may still be selfish; but that only represents
a failure to live up to what I know, viz, that my personality is
nothing but a causally determined process, and of absolutely
mortal essence, subject to all the ills that flesh is heir to. For
Jung, just as for the religious philosophies, there is something
else beyond this brainy individualitya Self around which
the inflated Ego revolves, much as the earth revolves around the
Sun (his own words). Nowadays, nothing is taught of Self-
knowledge, but only of Ego-kno wledge; and for Jung, the inflat
ed Ego was the root cause of the late war. I cite him so much
only because the collcgc man has so much faith in him.*
The isolation I spoke of makes of modern man what Plato
calls a playboy, interested in fine colors and sounds, but
ignorant of beauty. One might say that acsthcticism (literal
ly, sentimentality, being at the mercy of ones feelings as
recommended by Bentham) is a subjection which Plato defined
as ignoranceand this is the disease of which the current
crisis is a symptom; the disease equally of contemporary
Christianity and of contemporary skepticism (between which
there is not much difference). All this works out in Utopian-
ism, the notion of a future millenium (just around the corner, if
only . . .) to be achieved by the improvement of institutions.
Religion has no such illusions; religion is not in this sense
futuristic, but asserts that felicity is attainable, never en masse,
but at any time by the individual here and now. But of course,
that looks like work, and the appearance is not deceptive; it is
very much easier to sit back and rely on progress.
You might look at Erwin Schrodingers book What Is Life?
No doubt you have seen Zimmers Myths and Symbols in Indian
Art and Civilizationnow out.
Affectionately,
* Elsewhere, AKC expressed grave reservations about the views of Carl G.
Jung, eg, on page 10.
Mrs Margaret F. Marcus, Cleveland, Ohio.
Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations, see Bibliography.
Sheldon, Wilmot Herbert, Department of Philosophy, Yale University,
New Haven, Connecticut.
To MRS MARGARET F. MARCUS
April 29, 1946
Dear Margaret:
I send the Puppet paper, also the booklet of lectures which
you may find helpful when you talk about India. But you
know, I always have the feeling that you look at these things
only with interest as curiosities, and that metaphysics doesnt
have any real significance for you. It is pretty hard for anyone
who has been to college to have any other attitude, I know.
And yet, man is by nature a metaphysical animal, or if not, just
an animal whose concept of the future is limited by time.
We arc having a number of different cactus blossoms. I
havnt done much in the garden yetbad weather, and time is
not my own!
Someday you must try to tell me what interests you in the
material I assemble: you realize I say nothing, or try to say
nothing that can properly be attributed to me individually.
Mrs Margaret F. Marcus, Cleveland, Ohio.
Spiritual Paternity and the Puppet Complex (AKC), Psychiatry, VIII,
287-297, 1945; republished in AKCs collection of essays, Am I My Brothers
Keeper?
To SIDNEY HOOK
January 17, 1946
Dear Professor Hook:
Many thanks for your kind reply. You will realize, I hope,
that what I sent you was the copy of a private letter, and that I
would have written in a somewhat different tone for
publication.
My main point was that the mystics (or, I would prefer to
say, metaphysicians) insist upon the necessity of moral
means if the amoral end is to be reached; hence theirs is a
practical way, though a contemplative end. I agree with them
(and you) that the end is logically indescribable, other than by
negations, of which a-moral is but one.
To put it in another way, the end is not a value amongst
others, but that on which all values depend. If we have not the
concept of an end beyond values (+ or ) we are in great
danger of making our own relative values into absolutes.
As for Hinduism and Buddhism, Plato and St Thomas
Aquinas, you see differences where I see essentially sameness,
with differences mainly of local color. However, for this
sameness I would go to Eckhart and such works as The Cloud of
Unknowing, Boehme or Peter Sterry or Ficino rather than to
St Thomas (whose Summa belongs rather to the exoteric aspect
of Christianity). I have done a good deal to illustrate what I call
essential sameness by correlation of cited contexts, in print,
and I have vastly more material collected, eg, my Recollec
tion, Indian and Platonic, or Spiritual Paternity and the
Puppet Complex .
Very sincerely,
Sidney Hook, Professor of Philosophy, New York University.
The Cloud of Unknowing, see bibliography.
Jacob Boehme, see bibliography.
Peter Sterry, Platonist and Puritan, by Vivian de Sola Pinto; see bibliography.
The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino, by Paul O Kristcller; see bibliography.
Spiritual Paternity and the Puppcrt Complex , AKC, in Psychiatry,
VIII, 1945.
To MRS C. MORGAN
January 11, 1946
Dear Mrs Morgan:
Right now I cannot find time to go into the Huxley review at
length. Let us grant to Sidney Hook that Huxley fails to clarify
certain matters. But Hook, who makes this criticism, confuses
the matter by mistaking the situation itself. I am referring
particularly to the moral question which Hook not only
approaches as a moralist, but apparently in utter ignorance of
the traditional distinction of the moral means and the amoral
(not immoral!) end, that of the active from the contemplative
life. The normal position is that morality is essential to the active
life and is prerequisite but only dispositive to the contemplative.
This is the way St Thomas Aquinas states it: cf The Book of
Privy Counselling, when thou comest by thyself, think not
what thou shalt do after, but forsake as well good thoughts as
evil. Buddhism is notoriously a system in which great stress is
laid on ethics; and yet there, too, we find it repeatedly affirmed
that the end of the road is beyond good and evil. Bondage (in the
Platonic sense of subjection to oneself) depends on ignor
ance, and hence it is only truth that can set you free; there can
be no salvation by works of merit, but only by gnosis; but for
gnosis, mastery of self is a prerequisite.
The point is that one cannot reach the end of the road without
going straight, and while wc are on the way, we are not
there. The end of the road, or as it is often spoken of, home,
means that there is no more tramping to be done: therefore the
words walking straight or deviating cease to have any
meaning for or application to one who has arrived and is at
home. Wc are told to perfect, even as . . ., and as you will
rccognize, in whatever is pcrfcctcd there is no more perfecting
to be done. Whether or not perfection is attainable on earth we
need not ask; it represents, in any case, the ideal, and even
St Augustine refused to deny the possibility.
Moralism, such as Sidney Hooks is really an unconscious
form of Partipassianismthe doctrine that an infinite God is
nevertheless himself subject to affections and disaffections, and
only good in the human sense, which is one that implies at
the same time the possibility of not being good.
I had only time to take up this one point: but generally, I
should say Sidney Hook does not know his stuff well enough
to criticize Huxley, even though and where the latter may need
it.
Very sincerely,
Mrs C. Morgan, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sidney Hook, Professor of Philosophy, New York University.
The review referred to is in the Saturday Review, November 3, 1945.
Book of Privy Counselling and The Cloud of Unknowing, sec Bibliography.
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Dear M:
Your questions arc mostly about the how, and my answers
mostly about the what of metaphysics.
What you mean by Metaphysics is not what I mean. College
metaphysics is hardly anything more than cpistemology.
Traditional metaphysics is a doctrine about possibility: possibi
lities of being and not-bcing, of finite and infinite; those of
finite being arc embodied mosdy in what one calls ontology
and cosmology.
The traditional Metaphysics (Philosophia Perennis or Sanatana
Dharma) is not an omniumgatherum of what men have
believed, nor is it a systematic philosophy; it is a consistent
and always self-consistent doctrine which can be recognized
always and everywhere and is quite independent of any concept
of progress in material comfort or the accumulation of
empirical knowledge; neither opposed to nor to be confused
with either of these. It is the meaning of a world which would
otherwise consist only of experiences, one damn thing after
another. Without a principle to which all else is related, an end
to which all else can be ordered, our life is chaotic, and we do
not know how or for what to educate. A merely ethical trend is
only for our comfort and convenience but does not suffice for
illumination.
I can only, for the present, assert that the traditional
Metaphysics is as much a single and invariable science as
mathematics. The proof of this can hardly be found without the
discipline of pursuing fundamental doctrines all over the world
and throughout the traditional literatures and arts. It is not a
matter of opinions of thinkers. One should rapidly acquire
the powers of eliminating the negligible teachers, and that
includes nearly all modern thinkers, the Deweys and Jungs,
etc, through whom it is not worth while to search for the few
bright ideas to be found here and there. One must be fastidious.
Why pay attention, as Plato says, to the inferior philo
sophers?
The One Truth I am speaking of is reflected in the various
religions, various just because nothing can be known except in
the mode of the knower (St Thomas Aquinas). It is in the
same sense that the Ways appear to differ; this appearance
will diminish the further you pursue any one of them, in the
same way that the radii of a circle approximate the nearer you
get to the center.
Metaphysics requires the most discriminating legal mental
ity.* When Eckhart says that man is necessary to Gods
existence, this is not a boast but a simple logical statement. He
is not speaking of the Godhead, but of God as Lord (Jesus), and
merely pointing out that wc cannot speak of a lordship in a
case where there are no servants; one implies the other. Just
as there is no paternity without filiation; a man is not a
father unless he has a child. You wont catch Meister Eckhart
out as easily as all that!
The traditional Metaphysics does not deny the possible value
of random mystical experience, but is (like the Roman
Catholic Church) suspicious and critical of it because of its
passivity.*
Very sincerely,
* Whatever Dr Coomaraswamy had in mind in the use of this term (and
something of it will be inferred in the course of these letters), it was not
Pharisaism of any kind: his own life and thought are ample proof of that. On
the other hand, among the laymen who wrote to AKC, many were
lawyers, men trained in disciplined thinking, respect for evidence and in
some measure of discrimination and discernment.
* Although the copy of this letter available to the editors ends rather
abruptly, wc think it well worth inclusion because of its contcnt.
To MRS GRETCHEN WARREN
Dcccmbcr 11, 1944
Dear Grctchcn:
In such a comparison my preference would be for St
Augustine; I would explain this most briefly by saying that
Augustine is still a Platonist, Aquinas an Aristotelian, and
much nearer to being a rationalist. If Aquinas treats more
fully of the whole of man that is because the ages of
formation had passed and it was time for such cncyclopacdic
treatment; the difference is something like that between
Hinduism and Buddhism in emphasis. No scheme of life is
complete in which both norms arc not recognized and allowed
for, namely the social and the unsocial (not antisocial), Martha
and Mary. I think it is an error to say that Augustine had a
morbid terror of beauty. He seems to me to share fully in the
normal Christian admiration of the beauty of the Cosmos, as
sanctioned by Gods own appreciation of his handiwork in
Genesissaw that it was very good (cf Aug., Confessions
XIII, 28). He says also, there is no evil in things, but only in
the sinners use of them (Dedoc. Chr. Ill, 12). He says that
while things please us because they arc beautiful, it does not
follow that bccausc they please us they arc beautiful; some
people like deformities (Lib. deuer. relig. 59; DeMusica VI, 36).
An iron style is made by the smith on the one hand that we
may write with it, and on the other that we may take pleasure
in it; and in its kind it is at the same time beautiful and adapted
to our use (Lib. deuer. relig., 39). He points out that the
beautiful is to be found everywhere and in everything, for
example in the fighting cock (De Orditte /, 25)a good
example, since he would not have approved of cockfighting
and yet could see and point out the beauty of the fighting cock.
And this beauty in creatures is the voice of God. There is a
book by K. Svoboda entitled LEsthetique de St Augustin, and
also his De Musica is very profound.
Affectionately,
Mrs Gretchen Warren, Boston, Massachusetts.
To ALBERT SCHWEITZER
February 7, 1946
Dear Dr Schwcitzcr:
Although I have due respect for your fine work in Africa, I
have lately come across your book, Christianity and the Religions
of the World, and would like to let you know that I regard it as a
fundamentally dishonest work. Buddhism is, no doubt, a
doctrine primarily for contemplatives; but you cannot mix up
Brahmanism in this respect with Buddhism, because Brahman
ism is a doctrine for both actives and contemplatives. What I
mean especially by dishonest is that, to suit your purposes,
you cite the Bhagavad Gita where Arjuna is told to fulfil his duty
as a soldier, without citing the passage in which others are
likewise told to fulfil their vocations as means better than any
other of fulfilling the commandment Be ye perfect. . . .
This makes quite ridiculous your second paragraph on page
41. I am afraid that most Christians, for some reason obscure to
me, find it indispensable to exalt their own beliefs by giving a
perverted account of those of others, of which, moreover, they
have only a second-hand knowledge derived from the writings
of scholars who have been for the most part rationalists,
unacquainted with religious experience and unfamiliar with the
language of theology. I recommend you spend as much time
searching the Scriptures of Brahmanism and Buddhism, in the
original languages, as you may have spent on the Scriptures of
Christianity in their original languages, before you say any
thing more about other religions.
Very truly yours,
Albert Schwcitzcr, German theologian, musicologist and medical mission-
ary, widely influential in Protestant cirdcs in his time.
Christianity and the Religions of the World, see Bibliography.
Albert Schweitzer Jubilee Volume, a festschrift to which Dr Coomaraswamy
contributed a profound study entitled What is Civilization?, for which see
Bibliography.
To GEORGE SARTON
October 7, 1943
Dear Sarton:
Thanks for Schweitzer, Ill return it very soon. 1have read
most of it and it seems to me a strange mixture of much doing
good and much muddled thinking. I dont think he grasps the
weltanschaung of the ancient (European) world at all; and as for
the East, on page 178, line 1 concern himself solely and line
18 after living part of his life in the normal way and founding a
family arc inconsistent.
I received the invitation to write for the festschrift, but am
asked for something non-tcchnical and after reading the
book, I too feel that the little symbological paper I had in mind
wouldnt interest Schweitzer himself at all. Im seeing if I cant
put together a little note on the intrinsic significance of the
word civilization.
Schweitzers analysis of colonisation and its effects is good
(and tragic), but he feels helpless* in the face of world trade
and has no fight in him. He reminds me a little of Kierkegaard,
with his groaning and grunting; and with all his defense of
affirmation is not nearly as positive a person as, say, Eric
Gill, for whose last collection of cassys I am writing an
introduction.
With kindest regards,
* And yet he despises resignation! On the whole, one of the most exotcric
men imaginable. There arc many sides of Africa that he seems never to have
seen at all; there is no sign that he ever got into more than physical contact
with the people. Contrast St George Barbe Baker in Africa Drums.
George Sarton, Professor of the History of Scicncc, Harvard University, and
editor of Isis.
Albert Schweitzcr, Christianity and the Religions of the World; see bibliography.
What Is Civilization?, by AKC in The Albert Schweitzer Jubilee Volume; see
Bibliography.
St George Barbe Baker, Africa Drums; see Bibliography.
Eric Gill, It All Goes Together, sec Bibliography.
To MR MASCALL
Nobember 2, 1942
Dear Mr Mascall:
Many thanks for your kind letter. I cannot agree that it is the
essence of Christianity to be final and exclusive in any sense
except in the sense that any truth must be exclusive of error.
With that reservation, it can as much as Hinduism or Islam
claim to be final and conclusive.
Exclusive, as I said, presumes the existence of error; but it
remains to be shown that the other religions are in error,
whether about mans last end or the nature of deity. I venture
that your knowledge of these other religions is not profund:
knowledge of them cannot be that if it is not based on texts in
the original, and on thinking and being in their terms. I do
actually think in both Eastern and Christian terms, Greek,
Latin, Sanskrit, Pali, and to some extent Persian and even
Chinese. I hardly ever deal with any specific doctrine (eg, that
of the one essence and the two natures, or that of the light of
lights, or I will draw all men unto me) with reference to one
tradition only, but cite from many sources. I doubt if there is
any point of essential doctrine that could not be defended as
well from Indian as from Christian sources.
I presume that we are liberty, and even bound to use reason in
defense of any true doctrine. It will be evident, however, that if
we are to discuss the possibility of error in either one or both of
two given religions, it will be contrary to reason to assume that
one of them can be made the standard of judgement for both.
That would be to make an a priori judgement, and not an
investigation at all. A standard must be, by hypothesis,
superior to both the parties whose qualifications are under
consideration. One comes nearest to possession of such a
standard in the body of those doctrines that have been most
universally taught by the divine men of all times and peoples.
Anything for example, that is true for Plato (whom Eckhart
callcd that great priest, and in the same century that
JtliMoslem sainthad a vision of him filling all space with
light), the Gospels, Islam, Hinduism and Taoism, I am
prepared to regard as true, and rather for me to understand than
question. When we have in this way built up a standard of the
most important speculative verities, we can proceed to judge of
other propositions, in case they arc less widely witnessed to, by
their consistency or inconsistency with what has been accepted.
In any case, let me say, speaking for Hindus as to Christians,
that even if you are not with us, we arc with you.
Very sincerely,
Mr Mascall is not further identified, but may have been E. A. Mascall, the
prominent Anglican theologian and philosopher.
To SIGNOR GALVAO
November 15, 1940
Dear Signor Galvao:
It is a pleasure to receive your letter and to hear from an
unknown friend.
M. Rene Guenon had recovered his health last spring and
was again contributing to ET. The last number I received was
that of May 1940. The last letter I received from him was
written in June and did not reach me until October!
I have no news of M. Schuon. M. Preau had my ms (on the
Symbolism of Archery), intended for the 1940 Special No on
the Symbolism of Games, but I have heard nothing from
him since the occupation, and do not know if the publication of
ET can be continued. Yes, the participation of civilians in
warfare is quite anti-traditional: it must be shocking to a true
soldier, for whom war is a vocation.
I send you one of my publications here. With cordial
agreement,
Very sincerely,
Signor Galvao is a Brazilian correspondent of Guenon and AKC.
Rene Guenon, see Bibliography.
Frithjof Schuon, sec Bibliography.
ET = Etudes Traditionnelles\ see Bibliography.
Symbolism of Archcry, see Bibliography.
To SIGNOR GALVAO
October 10, 1941
My dear Signor Galvao:
I am happy to hear from you. Quand vous ecrivez: Un
chretien, eest-a-dire, un catholique, je suis en parfait accord de vousl
In view of the Pauline interdiction of the eating of meat offered
to idols, it might be considered irregular for a Catholic to eat
meat that has been sacrificed to what is (in his opinion) a false
god. However, where it is a question of accepting hospital
ity, one should ask no questions (Buddhist monks accept
whatever is given, even if meat: the responsibility for the
killing rests upon the donor). I cannot give an answer to the
question about the foundation stone.
I have heard from mutual friends that M. Guenon is well, but
I have heard nothing from him directly. The first of the
translations (East and West, published by Luzac, London) has
just appeared. Another book I can recommend to you is Eric
Gills Autobiography, published by Devin-Adair, New York.
As for your pretre (sacerdota): it is quite permissible for any
Catholic to recognizc the truth of any particular doctrine taught
by a pagan philosopher. Indeed, St Thomas himself makes
use of the pagan philosophers as sources of intrinsic and
probable truth. I have known two devout Catholics, a layman
and a learned nun who saw more than this. The former wrote
to me that he saw that Hinduism and Christianity amounted to
the same thing; while the nun said to me that I see that it is not
necessary for you to be a Catholic. But this is unusual, and
with most of my Catholic friends I go no further than to
discuss particular doctrines, in connection with which, as they
arc willing to recognizc, exegetical light may be thrown from
other than specifically Christian sources.
It is perhaps M. Cuttat, whom I recently had the pleasure to
meet, who proposes to publish in Spanish a journal somewhat
like Etudes Traditionnelles. I hope that your generosity and other
efforts will lead to success. Wc miss the appearance of ET. For
myself, I am endeavoring to publish elsewhere. As you have
probably rccognizcd, I do not, like M. Guenon, repudiate the
orientalists altogether (however, I am fully aware of their
crimcs in the name of scholarship) but endeavour to publish
what I have to say in the language of scholarship: on the
whole I find a more open minded and rather receptive attitude
amongst my colleagues than might have been expected.
I hope to send you several papers, and also my forthcoming
book, Spiritual Authority arid Temporal Power in theIndian
Theoryof Government during this winter.
I do not think it would be possible to obtain any numbers of
ET in the USA where it is very little known.
Yours very sincerely,
Signor Galvao is not identified.
ET = Eludes Traditionnelles; sec Bibliography.
Monsieur Cuttat was a Swiss diplomat with interests similar to those of
AKC and Rcn6 Guenon.
To SENATOR ERIC O. D. TAYLOR
November 7, 1939
Dear Senator:
I certainly do not regard your letter as an impedance. Of
coursc, I do not deny that there arc foundations as well as
pinnacles, and that there are cornerstones in the plural, at the
corners. Only in the latter sense it makes no sense to speak of
the head of the church as the cornerstone (one asks, which of
the four:). I should say that Christ is thought of both as
foundation and as pinnacle: and that both (not to mention the
intervening stauros) are corner stones in the sense that Eckstein is
also diamond. That the axis of the Universe is adamantine
throughout is universal. As for the other point, I am too
familiar with the identity of Christian, Indian and other
doctrines not to think that Indian metaphysics is a key to
Christian mysticism. You would surely, with St Thomas
Aquinas, acccpt the work of pagan philosophers as provid
ing extrinsic and probable proofs, even if you would not
admit with Augustine that the one true religion always existed
and only came to be called Christianity after the birth of Christ.
(I am not sure that this Augustinian dictum has been branded as
heretical!)
Very truly yours,
Eric O. D. Taylor, Senator from Rhode Isand, USA.
Cf AKCs article Eckstein in Speculum, XIV, 1939, pp 66-72, on the
meaning of cornerstone in Christian symbolism; see Bibliography.
To SENATOR ERIC O. D. TAYLOR
date uncertain
Dear Sir:
Since writing yesterday I have seen a letter from Erwin
Panofsky, of Princeton, in which he says that the interpretation
of lapis in caput anguli as keystone and not cornerstone, is
indubitably correct and that late medieval artists almost
unanimously represented it accordingly. He sent a photo from
a manuscript showing a diamond shaped stone being laid by
builders at the top of a tower.
Very sinccrcly,
To SENATOR ERIC O. D. TAYLOR
undated
Dear Sir;
I think the old law would be the foundation and the new law the
keystone of the structure itself. Of course, foundation, con
necting stauros, and capital would all be adamantine, in Eastern
as in Christian symbolism.
AKC
This latter note was in the form of a postcard, and both it and that
immediately before relate to the communication that precedes them.
To BERNARD KELLY
January 14, 1945
Dear Mr Kelly:
To take up your letter of the lsf: the usual complaint is, of
course, that the mystics arc too otherworldly; you raise the
opposite objection. The answers should be long, but briefly, I
think one can say that perhaps the problem has been more
dearly faced in India, with its conception of the four stages
of lifestudent, householder, retirement, and absolute re
nunciationthe last is an anticipated death (the sannyasbt
becoming what the Sufis call a dead man walking) and just as
in actual death, so here carrying on of the life of the world is
provided by ones dcsccndcnts to whom all responsibilities arc
transmitted, so that one docs not die in debt to the world.
Thus both an ordinary and the extraordinary norm arc
provided for.
I think this is also really the ease in Christianity; where,
however, the notion of service has almost overwhelmed that
of mans last end. Since mans entekchy, his pcrfcction, to
realize which is enjoined upon him, consists in the purely
contemplative life or vision of God, it is impossible to suppose
that this life has been forbidden him; and there are, in fact,
orders, like the Trappist, in which this life of contemplation is
followed without any obligation of service.
It can only be said that the mystic is acting selfishly when
there really remains in him a self*. From this point of view
even in India, the adoption of a purely contemplative way of
life is condemned where there is what is callcd premature
aversion. Until one is a jivan-mukta (freeman) really, until one
can say I live, yet not I, but. . one is clinging to rights
and has duties, and however great ones enlightenment,
ought as Plato says, to return to the cave, though in
anothcr-mindcd way than is theirs who have never left it.
A few points: Service in the sense of neighbourlincss is a
matter of prudence, not of art. The manufacturer, pretending
to serve the community, is all wet, so to say; the duty of the
maker of things is not to those who will use them, but to the
things, to see to it that they arc as good as he can make them.
Thus the good of mankind is served by the artist indirectly. At
the same time every artist is also a man, and as such has social
responsibilities like any consumers. Again, the truly freeman is
free, amongst other ways, to be engaged in any kind of
activity, and may not necessarily adopt a homeless life, though
it is far more difficult to be free in company than in solitude;
freedom has nothing really to do with what one docs, but with
the attitude one has towards things; if one can act without
acting, without attachment to any consequences, one can be as
free that way as in a monastic cell. For that, one must be able to
live always in the eternal now, letting the dead bury the dead
and taking no thought for the morrow. In such a case, one may
seem to be serving, as if one had duties, but is, in fact, simply
being, entirely unaffected by the acts which are really no longer
ones own (so in St Pauls conception of liberty, as disting
uished from being under the law).
Now as to Fate. Fate corresponds to causality and is not the
same as Providence. In the orthodox teachings, fate lies in the
dreaded causes themselves and has much in common with
heredity. Providence is the timeless vision (no more fore
sight than hindsight, but now-sight) of the operation of
secondary causes in the world where nothing happens by
chance. To have no Fate would be to have no character; and it is
in this sense that one uses the word un-fortunate, one who has
not the share or lot in life that is his due.
I can hardly speak too highly of Pallis book Peaks and Lamas
which is the best introduction to Mahayana Buddhism and its
working out in life that I know. There is a fair amount of
literature on Tibetan doctrinc. One of the best introductions is
the novel by the Lama Yongden called Mipam (publ. John Lane,
1938). Some of the systematic books include Evans-Wcntz,
Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrine and The Tibetan Book of the Dead
(both publ. by Oxford); Bacot and Woolf, Three Tibetan
Mystery Plays (Broadway Translations, Dutton, N. Y.); Bacot,
Le Poete tibetain Milarepa (Paris, 1925). There are also many
works on Mahayana, not specifically Tibetan.
Write again if you think I can be of further help.
Very sincerely,
* . . . Christ livcth in me. Galatians ii, 20.
Bernard Kelly was a Catholic layman who lived in Windsor, England, with
whom AKC corresponded extensively. Well trained in Catholic theology, he
was able to read both Latin and Greek with facility. He undertook the study
of Sanskrit in order to better understand Eastern religion. He wrote
occasionally for the English Dominican journal Blackfriars. He and his wife
had six children and he supported his family on the modest income of a bank
clerk.
TO WALTER SHEWRING
March 4, 1936
Dear Walter Shewring:
Very many thanks for your kind letter. I am more than
appreciative of your corrections. I can only say that I am
conscious of fault in these matters. It is no cxcuse to say that
checking rcfcrcnccs and citations is to me a wearisome task. I
am sometimes oppressed by the amount of work to be done
and try to do too much too fast . . . in certain cases I have not
been able to see proofs. . . .
It is only in the period of the 5th-13th century a d that East
and West arc really of one heart and mind. A Catholic friend of
mine here, who has been writing articles on extremism
urging a nocompromise relationship between the Church and the
worldtells me that I (who am not formally a Christian) am
the only man who seems to see his point! What I am appalled
by is that even Catholics who have the truth if they would only
operate with it wholeheartedly, are nearly all tainted with
modernism.* I mean have reduced religion to faith andmorals,
leaving speculation and factibilia to the profane and Mammon.
Christianity is nowadays presented in such a sentimental
fashion that one cannot wonder that the best of the younger
generation revolt. The remedy is to present religion in the
intellectually difficult forms: present the challenge of a theology
and metaphysics that will require great effort to understand at
all____
One word about the errors. I would like to avoid them
altogether of course. But one cannot take part in the struggle
for truth without getting hurt. There is a kind of perfection
ism which leads some scholars to publish nothing, because
they know that nothing can be perfect. I dont respect this. Nor
do I care for any aspersions that may reflect upon me
personally. It is only for the good of the work to be done that
one must be as careful as possible to protect oneself. . . . I am
so occupied with the task that 1 rarely have leisure to enjoy a
moment of personal realisation. It is a sort of feeling that the
harvest is ripe and the time is short. However, I am well aware
that all haste is none the less an error. I expect to improve.
Affectionately,
*Note that Dr Coomaraswamy recognized this deadly infection thirty years
before it was rcmanifested during and following the Second Vatican
Council.
Walter Shcwring, Assistant Master at Amplcforth College, England, and
sometime Charles Oldham Scholar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford
University.
To WALTER SHEWRING
February 27, 1938
My dear Walter Shewring:
A very large number of Hindus, very many million
certainly, daily repeat from memory a part, or in some cases,
even the whole of the Bhagavad Gita. This recitation is a
chanting, and no one who has not heard Sanskrit poetry thus
recited, as well as understanding it, can really judge of it as
poetry. To me the language is both noble and profound. The
style is quite simple and without ornament, like that of the best
of the Epic, and of the Upanishads; it is not yet the ornamented
classic style of the dramas. On the whole I think the
judgements of the professional scholars are to be discounted,
for many reasons. Personally, I should think a good compari
son, poetically, would be with the best of the medieval Latin
hymns.
The trouble with almost all Sanskritists is that all they know
is the language. For the rest, they are inhibited in all sorts of
ways. Their attitude to Dionysius or Eckhart would be the
same as to the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads: they would say
very interesting, and sometimes quite exalted in tone, but on
the whole irrational. I do not sec how anyone who cannot
read John, or Dionysius, or much of Philo or Hermes or
Plotinus with enthusiasm can read the Upanishads with
enthusiasm; and in fact, such introductions as men like Hume
write to their very imperfect translations are really quite naive.
It is no use to pretend that you can really know these things by
reading them as literature. That they are literature is the
accident, no doubt, but not their essence. . . . The so-called
objectivity of science is very often nothing but a kind of
aloofness that defeats its own ends. Who can be said to have
understood Scripture or Plainsong whose eyes have never been
moistened by cither?
Affectionately,
Walter Shewring, Assistant Master, Ampleforth College, England.
The Bhagavad Gita, most popular of the Hindu Scriptures, is recognizcd as a
recapitulation of them; it forms part of the cpic poem, the Mahabharata.
Robert Emest Hume, translator of and commentator upon the Upanishads;
see his The Thirteen Principal Upanishads in the Bibliography.
ANONYMOUS
April 5, 1947
Dear Mr . . .
I had sent these cxccrpts on grief to Mrs M . . . instead of
to you direct, sincc you had not raised the question with me
directly. The actual words, Every meeting is a meeting for the
first time, and every parting is forever are mine, but not mine
as regards their meaning which depends on the quite universal
ly rccognized principle of uninterrupted change or flux;
nothing stops to be, but has bccomc something else before
you have had time to take hold of it. This applies notably to the
psycho-physical personality or individuality which modem
psychologists and ancient philosophers alike are agreed is not
an entity but a postulate formed to facilitate easy reference to an
observed sequence of events; those who attribute entity to
individuals arc animists, and also polytheists (sincc I and
is arc expressions proper only to God). Duo sunt inhomine;
which of these two were you most attached to, the mortal or
the immortal?
Every heart-attracting face that thou beholdest,
The sky will soon remove it from before thy eyes;
Go, and give thy heart to One who, in the circle of
existence,
Has always remained with thee and will so continue
to be.
That Self is dearer than a son. . . . He who regards the
Self
as dear, what he holds dear is, verily, not perishable.
You speak of your metaphysics as Western. You might Just
as well call your mathematics or chemistry Western. Such
distinctions cannot be made. The basic metaphysical
propositionseg, nihil agit in seipsumhave nothing to do with
geography. Neither has the traditional doctrinc condemning
excessive grief for the dead, both for ones own sake and
because such grief is an abuse of the dead:
O who sits weeping on my grave,
And will not let me sleep?
The brief remainder of this letter is separately folded and
enclosed in order that you may, if you wish, destroy it unread; I
only say this because, if you do read it, you will not like it.
Biography is a rather ghoulish and dispicablc trade in any
case. If your son would have wished to have his private life
exhibited, he must have had a full measure of self conceit. If, as
I suppose, he would very much rather not be treated as Exhibit
A, then you are simply indulging your own masochistic delight
in your own misery, at his expense, and that of any other
helpless human beings whose lives may have been intimately
involved with his. If such an unreserved biography as you
propose has never been done before, that may well be because
hitherto no one has been shameless enough to do such a thing.
It seems to me that neither your son nor his still living friends
will be able easily to forgive you, and I dare say, in turn, you
will not forgive me!
To S. DURAI RAJA SINGAM
May 1946
Dear Mr Durai Raja Singam:
In reply to your various letters, I enclose some information. I
must explain that I am not at all interested in biographical
matter relating to myself and that I consider the modem practice
of publishing details about the lives and personalities of well
known men is nothing but a vulgar catering to illegitimate
curiousity. So I could not think of spending my time, which is
very much occupied with more important tasks, in hunting up
such matter, most of which I have long forgotten; and I shall be
grateful if you will publish nothingbut thebarest facts about
myself. What you should deal with is the nature and tendency
of my work, and your book should be 95 per cent on this. I wish
to remain in the background, and shall not be grateful or
flattered by any details about myself or my life; all that is anicca,
and as the wisdom of India should have taught you,
portraiture of human beings is asvarya. All this is not a
matter of modesty, but of principle. For statements about the
nature and value of my work you might ask the secretary of the
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Society, Poona (India), and
Dr Murray Fowler, c/o G. and G. Mcrriam Co, Springfield,
Massachusetts (USA) to make some statement, as both are
familiar with it. I would not mind sending you press reviews of
my books, but it would take more time than I have to hunt
them up; I have no secretary who would do this sort of thing
for me!
Yours sincerely,
S. Durai Raja Singam was a retired tcacher in Malaysia who had written to
AKC for information in order to'write a biography, and who later published
in Malaysia a number of works which provide a wealth of biographical
information on him.
To MARCO PALLIS
August 20, 1944
Dear Marco:
1 am rather appalled by your suggestion of my writing a book
of the nature of a critique of Occidentalism for Indian readers.
It isnt my primary function (dharma) to write readable books
or articles; this is just where my function differs from
Guenons. All my willing writing is addressed to the professors
and specialists, those who have undermined our sense of values
in recent times, but whose vaunted scholarship is really so
superficial. I feel that the rectification must be at the reputed
top and only so will find its way into the schools and text
books and encyclopaedias. In the long run the long piece on the
Early Iconography of Saggitarius, on which I have been
engaged for over a year, with many interruptions, seems to me
more important than any direct additions to the literature of
indictment.
When I go to India, it will be to drop writing, except perhaps
translation (of Upanishads, etc); my object in retiring being
to verify what I already know.
AKC
Marco Pallis, London, England, author of Peaks and Lamas and other works
(see Bibliography) which have earned him a reputation as one of the premier
interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture of this century.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt, author of many books and articles on
traditional doctrine and symbolism; and an early and powerful voice in
defense of tradition and in criticism of the modern world.
Unfortunately, Early Iconography of Saggitarius was still incomplete at the
time of Dr Coomaraswamys death in 1947.
To HERMAN GOETZ
June 15, 1939
Dear Dr Goetz:
There is one other point in your article that I might remark
upon. You connect my change of interest from art history to
metaphysics with age and no doubt that is in a measure true,
though I would perhaps rather say maturity than age
However, I would also like to explain that this was also a
natural and necessary development arising from my former
work in which the iconographic interest prevails. I was no
longer satisfied with a merely descriptive iconography and had
to be able to explain the reasons of the forms; and for this it was
necessary to go back to the Vcdas and to metaphysics in
general, for there lie the seminal reasons of iconographic
development. I could not, of course, be satisfied with merely
sociological explanations since the forms of the traditional
societies themselves can only be explained metaphysically.
With kindest regards,
Dr Herman Goetz, well known German art historian and translator of
AKC's History of Indian and Indonesian Art (see Bibliography) into German.
To MISS ADE DE BETHUNE
June 15, 1939
My dear Miss De Bcthune:
The style of my articles to which you refer is determined by
various considerations, and primarily by the nature of the
rather complex, though relatively small audience they reach.
Mr Rene Guenon writes, in spite of all his learning, as simply as
possible and can do this more often than I can because he rejects
the academic Orientalists altogether. I am on the other hand a
professional Orientalist. I decided long ago not to reject but,
so to speak, to work within the fold. But as I have to put
forward the real meaning of doctrines (eg, regarding Rein
carnation) which academic Orientalists have generally mis
understood, I must do so in an orthodox manner, and justified
by many references since these Orientalists arc not interested
in the Truth, but in what men have said. Then again, I always
want to make it clear that I am not putting forward any new or
private doctrines or interpretations; and the use of quotations is
valuable here. I am also impressed by the concordance, often
amounting to verbal identity, of Western and Eastern scriptural
pronouncements and therefore enjoy weaving a logical tissue in
which each echoes the other in a sort of harmony.
An article in the 1939 Spring No. of The American Scholar on
Vedanta and Western Tradition is entirely without refer
ences, tho not without quotations.
The use of Sanskrit is partly necessitated by the fact that most
of my articles appear in the technical oriental journals; but also
by the fact that a part of my audience is Indian, and for them the
use of a well known Sanskrit term often gives precise value to
what might be an unfamiliar English expression. I quote from
St Thomas Aquinas a good deal because most of what I need
can be found there, and to quote from him is an economy of
argument because he stands for Roman Catholics as an a priori,
altho not absolute authority. In any case, I regard myself not as
an author, not as a literary man, but as an exegete and my only
object is to state what is to be said as unmistakably as possible.
In the lecture now in press (Stevens) you will be interested in
a citation from Asvaghosa very closely paralleling Dantes
affirmation of his practical purpose.
I am glad you mentioned the question of sin. Art itself is not
of course governed by moral considerations, but the artists and
the patrons will is or should be so governed and it cannot too
much be emphasized that there is a point at which love of art
becomes the sin of luxury.
On the question of last and ultimate, I agree. Eternity is
not an everlasting duration, but an eternal now. Hence the
connection of suddenness with the Sanctus and the symbol
ism of lightning. Cf the scholastic tendency to treat in
principio not as in the beginning (temporally), but as in the
principle, ie, In Him through whom all things were made.
With kind regards,
Miss Ade de Bcthunc, Newport, Rhode Island, USA, American Catholic
artist and author of Work, published by John Stevens, Newport, Rhode
Island.
The Vedanta and the Western Tradition, The American Scholar, VIII, 1939.
TO PORTER SARGENT
March 19, 1945
Pear Mr Sargent:
As I mentioned before, I am afraid our points of view arc far
apart. I am in agreement with nearly everything said, as 1 think
so well, by Mr Beck, and with a very great part of the whole
Scholastic tradition. I am not a Jesuit, and can only call myself a
follower of the philosophia perennis, or if required to be more
specific, a Vedantin. I am a doctor of scicncc and see no conflict
between religion and scicncc, when both arc rightly defined; on
this subject I have written in Isis and have another article
forthcoming there.
The philosophy I follow is equally valid for this world and
the other; it is one that gives a meaning to life and to all
activities here and now. I cannot agree with you that it concerns
only the post mortemstates of being, though it would seem that
these would last longer than our present one. In my writing I
never fail to relate philosophy to life. I might call your attention
to the fact that the tradition I am speaking of, and modern
positivism arc agreed on one matter at least, viz, that our
human personality is not a being, but only a process. The
tradition differs from positivism in maintaining that, neverthe
less, the conviction of being that all of us have is valid in itself,
however invalid if connected with our mutable personality. It is
only to this being that immortality is predicated. Nothing of
course can be regarded as immortal that is not immortal now.
Yours very sincerely,
Mr Porter Sargent, Yankee individualist, publisher, authority on non
public schools, writer and sometime poet (from a review of his book), was
the author of a book called War and Education, 1944.
Eastern Wisdom and Western Knowledge, AKC, Isis, Part 4, 1943; and
Gradation and Evolution, Isis, 1944.
To PROFESSOR THE HONORABLE EMILE SCHAUB-KOCH
April 28, 1941
My dear Professor Schaub-Koch:
I am greatly honored by your letter of March 17. I have sent
you separately my Elements of Buddhist Iconography, and also a
scries of reprints from various magazines. I look forward to
your large book on Buddhist Iconography with much interest.
When I received your letter I was just then engaged in writing a
short article on Some Sources of Buddhist Iconography
(especially the flame on a Buddhas head, and the representation
of the Buddha as a pillar or tree of fire).
I am highly appreciative of your proposal of myself for the
honorary membership of the Coimbra Academy, and shall
regard this as a high honour. For your convenience I may
mention that I am a correspondent of the Archeological Survey
of.India, Vice-President of the India Society (London), and an
Honorary Member of the Vrienden der Asiatischen Kunst and
of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, etc. I have also
been a Vice-President of the American Oriental Society; and
am a Doctor of Science of London University. I only mention
these matters in case you may wish to supply this information
to your friend Count de Costo-Lobo who is to make the
nomination.
I shall hope to hear of the safe arrival of the papers I have
sent, and to hear from you again.
With my best wishes for the successful continuation of your
valuable researches, I remain,
Yours very sincerely,
Professor the Honorable Schaub-Koch, Geneva, Switzerland
Elements of Buddhist Iconography, see Bibliography.
Measures of Fire, O Instituto, Coimbra, Portugal, 1942.
To GEORGE SARTON
November 4 (year not indicated, but presumably 1934)
My dear Sarton:
Thanks for your review of Transformation . . . in Isis, and the
kind words. I must, however, make two observations. First, a
minor matterI am not, or only to a small extent (in so far as I
know the Sinhalese language) a Sinhalese (I do not like this
spelling!) scholar. My father was a Tamil. A native of Ceylon
as such is callcd a Ceylonese. Second, you must not give me
credit for the passage you approve of, in quite the way you
doI amdogmatic, in the technical as well as in the
pejorative sense of the word, according to which latter sense
you employ it. I regard the truth, in other words, as a matter of
certainty, not of opinion. I am never expressing an opinion or
any personal view, but an orthodox one; 1 cannot say I think,
or it seems to me. As to the intrinsic rightness of all styles:
this only holds from the world-picture point of view as a
whole, in which the black shadows are as necessary as the high
lights; the way to that divine and impartial vision is not by
persuading oneself that black is white, however, but by
recognizing black for black and white for white. All that you
call humanism is from my (traditionally orthodox) point of
view, black; and very far from what is traditionally
understood by human nature which has nothing to do with
time. So I amjust as hopeless a case as you were half inclined
to make me out!
Very sincerely,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University.
The Transformation of Nature in Art, AKC, see Bibliography.
To HERMAN GOETZ
January 17, 1947
Dear Dr Goetz:
Many thanks, in the first place, for writing an article for my
festschrift. Mr Iyer sent me a copy, and I took great pleasure in
reading it, and agree in the main, though perhaps not with
every word. I think credit is due to Dr Kramrisch also for her
work on Deccan painting, in which she emphasizes the Gujarati
elements. Secondly, for your letter of 16th October,-which
only just arrived! As to this letter: I think you still somewhat
misunderstand my position. I fully agree that the Kali Yuga is a
necessary phase of the whole cycle, and I should no more think
it could be avoided than I could ask the silly question, Why
did God allow evil in the world? (one might as well ask for a
world without ups and downs, past and future, as to ask for a
world without good and evil). On the other hand, I feel under
no obligation to acquiesce in or to praise what 1 judge to be evil,
or an evil time. Whatever the conditions, the individual has to
work out his own salvation; and cannot abandon judgement,
and be overcome by popular catchwords. I feel, therefore, at
liberty to describe the world as is, to mark its tendencies. I see
the worst, but I need not be a part of it, however much I must
be in it; I will only be a part of the better future you think of,
and of which there are some signs, as there must be even now if
it is ever to become.
One of our very best men here recently remarked that this
American world is not a civilization, but an organized
barbarism I can agree; but what is more distressing is that of
all the hundreds of Indian students who are now coming here,
the great majority are nothing but disorganized barbarians,
what you might call cultural illiterates. This produces a very
strange impression on the really cultured Americans. . . . The
modern young Indian (with exceptions) is in no position to
meet the really cultured and spiritual European. I feel an
interest, therefore, in the state of education in India. I cant
help feeling sorry for Nehru, who discovered India so late;
and at Jinnah, who is not a Moslem in any but a political
sense. I regret the spread in India of the class distinctions that
arc so characteristic of the Western democracies. I would like
to see the caste system intensified, especially so as regards the
Brahmins, who should be demoted if they dont fill the bill;
should be made Vaisyas if they go in for money-making, and
Sudras when they become engineers. This docs not mean that I
dont think anyone should make money or engines, but that
those who do should rank accordingly; in which respect my
position is as much Platonic as Indian.
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Above all, I am not a reformer or a propagandist; I dont
think for my self; I spend my time trying to understand some
things that 1regard as immutable truths; in the first place, for
my own sake, and secondly for that of those who can make use
of my results. For me, there are certain axioms, principles, or
values beyond question; my interest is not in thinking up new
ones, but in the application of these that are.
You say you cannot see an ugly, only a tragic picture. I
disagree with that, because I cannot see tragedy except in
heroic conflict; where one simply drifts with the current and
merely shouts Progress, I see no possibility of a tragic rasa,
but only ugliness.
Very sincerely,
Dr Herman Goetz, popular German art historian resident in India; cf letter,
p 31.
Dr Stella Kramrisch, Curator of Indian Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art and
sometime professor of Indian art at Calcutta University; author of A Survey
of Painting in the Deccan and The Indian Temple, major studies in the art and
architecture of India.
The AKC festschrift was published under the title Art and Thought; see
Bibliography.
Kali Yuga or age of strife, which marks the terminal phase of the present
human cycle in the Hindu theory of cyclic time; for a discussion of this
concept, see Rene Guenon, The Crisis of the Modem World, London, 1942.
Vaisya and sudra, the lower two of the four traditional Hindu castes; for a
further discussion, see AKC, The Religious Basis of the Forms of Indian Society,
Orientalia, New York, 1946.
Rasa, Sanskrit for flavour or taste; an important concept in Hindu aesthetics.
To FATHER PAUL HENLEY FURFEY, SJ.
November 11, 1937
Dear Father Furfey:
I wonder if you could refer me to any authoritative
statements against a translation of the Bible into the vernacular?
Also to any recent encyclical in which the retention of services
in Latin is enjoined? I am myself in full agreement with the
principle of retaining the hieratic language untranslated
(however much explained by commentaries) but would like to
know the Christian authorities.
Very sincerely,
Father Paul H. Furfey, SJ, professor of sociology, Catholic University of
America, Washington, D. C.
To MISS ADE DE BETHUNE
June 25, 1940
Dear Miss de Bethune:
I am in full agreement with you on the question of Liturgy
(etc) in the vernacular. There are many important reasons for
the retention of a sacred language. There have been
vernaculars (like the Braj dialect of Hindi) which are themselves
virtually sacred languages and admirably adapted to the
expression of the truth. In the present situation, however, the
notable considerations are (1) that modern English is essentially
a secular language, not at all well adapted to the fa(on de penser of
scripture, and (2) the words which once had definite meanings
have become materialized and sentimentalized: contrast the
medieval meaning of nature and the modem, and note the gulf
between the philosophical and popular value of ideal. For these
reasons there cant be a translation that is not also a betrayal. It is
a perfectly comprehensible situation of course: the humanisa
tion, ie, secularization of scripture accompanies the humanisa
tion of Christ (as Eckhart remarks, Christs humanity is a
hindrance to those who cling to it with mortal pleasureone
might add that human nature does not mean the same thing
for the Schoolmen as it does for the modern to whom the
expressions forma humanitatis means nothing).
Very sincerely,
Miss Adc de Bethune, Newport, Rhode Island, USA; sec letter, p. 28.
To MR J. T. TALGERI
August 29, 1946
Dear Mr Talgeri:
In reply to your letter, just received:
All men live by faith, until they have reached an immediate
knowledge of reality in which they at first believed. What is
love? as Rumi says: Thou shalt know when thou becomest
Me.
A priori, faith in a given dogma will depend upon the
credibility of the witness. Whenever, and that is normally
always, the same truths have been enunciated by the great
teachers of the world at many times and in many places, there is
ground for supposing that ones task is rather to understand and
verify what has been said than to question it; and that is just as
when a professor of chemistry informs us that 2H + O =
H2O, we take this on faith until we have understood and
verified the proposition. To the extent that truths are verified in
personal experience, faith is replaced by certainty; in this sense,
for example, the Buddhist Arahant is no longer a man of faith.
So I believe in the words of the Vcdas, Buddha, Socrates,
Ramakrishna, Muhammed, Christ and many others, and in the
timeless reality to which or to whomaccording to the
phraseology appropriate in each casethese bear witness. I do
not believe that I am this man so-and-so, but that I am that Man
in this man, and that He is One and the same in all the
temporary vehicles that He inhabits and quickens here in His
transcendence of. them all.
Very sincerely,
Mr Talgeri is not further identified.
To HELEN CHAPIN
October 29, 1945
Dear Miss Chapin:
I have yours of the 25th and 28th. In the first place, I did not
mean to say that you had sports for an ideal, ctcthat was part
of the general criticism of these latter days. As for caste, I
have to prepare a lecture on the Religious Basis of Hindu
Social Order and will try to go into it there. For the rest, I am
only too well aware that knowing all literature can mean
nothing: and at best is only dispositive to liberationthough it is
that. However, it has been mainly searching (these) scrip
tures that has got me as far along as I am; effecting, that is to
say, a measure of liberation from some things. I dont think
you need worry about the immorality of doing futile work for
a livingits just a condition imposed by the environment. I
am a parasite on industrialism, in just the same way, but
nevertheless this very situation gives me a position and means
to do something worthwhile, I think. Your idea of a Buddhist
cooperative seems good to me; and what you say of disposing
of your goods (sell all that thou hast, and follow me) seems
the right beginning. But I think you need a little time to
consolidate yourself. For another thing, also, to be of the
greatest value in such a community you need the resources
which would enable you to universalize, so to speak, the
orientals ^ith younot that they have not in their own
background enough for salvation, but that they too are in
some danger of the provincialism that is the outstanding quality
of American cultureisolationist even intellectually!
Finally, if you thought it worthwhile to make the trip, would
you care to spend a week with us? We have no servant, but I am
sure you wouldnt mind doing your share of the rather light
housework that existence demands. My wife joins me in this
invitation.
Sincerely,
Miss Helen Chapin, Bryn Mawr College, Bren Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA.
To PROFESSOR J. H. MUIRHEAD
August 29, 1935
Dear Professor Muirhead:
I am a good deal relieved by your very kind letter of August
14, for although I spent much time and thought on this articlc, I
still felt dissatisfied with it. What I wanted to bring out was the
metaphysical character of Indian doctrinc, that it is not a
philosophy in the same sense in which this word can be used in
the plural; and that the metaphysics of the universal and
unanimous tradition, or philosophia perennis, is the infallible
standard by which not only religions, but still more philo
sophies and sciences must be corrected (correction du
savoir-penser) and interpreted.
Now as to the abbreviation: it would be my wish in any case
to omit p 8, line 13 up to p 10, line 3 inclusive, and the
corresponding footnotes (ie, omit all discussion of the Holy
Family, which I would prefer to take up again elsewhere, not as
I have done here neglecting the doctrinc of the Eternal Birth
and divine nature by which the Father begats, which
nature is in fact the Magna Mater, the mother of eternity).
For the rest I am entirely at your disposal, and rely on you to
make such further excisions as you think best, without sending
me the Ms, but only the proof in due course.
I may add that all my recent work has tended to show the Rig
Vcdic (therefore also of course, Upanishad and Brahmana) and
neo-Platonic traditions arc of an identical import; working this
out mainly in connection with ontology and aesthetics, and de
divitiis nominibus. I am contributing an articlc on Vcdic
Excmplarism to the James Haughton Woods Memorial Volume to
be published at Harvard University shortly. I have indeed one
Catholic friend who admits that he can no longer see any
difference between Christianity and Hinduism. I myself find
nothing unacceptable in any Catholic doctrinc, save that of an
exclusive truth, which last is not, I believe, a matter of faith (ie,
Catholicism assumes its own truth but does not deny truths
elsewhere merely because they occur elsewhere, although in
practice the individual Catholic docs tend to do this). I am not
at all interested in tracing possible influences of one teaching
on another, for example whether or not Jesus or Plotinus may
or may not have visited India; the roots of the great tradition
are very much older than either Christianity or the Vedas as we
have them, although from the standpoint of content both may
be called eternal. I hope this may help to make my position
clearer, and may be of help to you in editing my Ms. I owe you
many apologies for the troublesome work that must be
involved in this.
With renewed thanks,
Very sincerely,
Professor J. H. Muirhead, editor of Contemporary Indian Philosophy, Allen
and Unwin, London, 1936, in which AKCs article The Pertinence of
Philosophy appeared.
Vedic Exemplarism, AKCs contribution to the James Haughton Woods
Memorial Volume, Harvard University Press, 1936.
To PROFESSOR H. G. RAWLINSON
no date given
My dear Rawlinson:
It is a matter oflittle interest to me whether Gautama or Jesus
lived historically.* Gautama himself says Those who see
me in the body or hear me in words, do not see or hear
Me. . . . He who sees the dhamma sees Me. I do think it
necessary to have as a background a knowledge of metaphysics.
For a European this means an acquaintance with and verifica
tion of the Gospels (at least John), Gnostic and Hermetic
literature, Plotinus, Dionysius, Eckhart, Dante. It is of no use
to read these simply as literature; if one is not going to get
something out of all this, why read at all? If I were not getting
solid food out of scholarship, I would drop it tomorrow and
spend my days fishing and gardening.
Yours sincerely,
* The apparently inordinate character of this remark can be seen in better
perspective if it is weighed against other AKC statements. For example,
commenting in passing on the Gospel formula . . . that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets, he says that this phrase simply asserts
the necessity of an historical eventuation of that which has been ordained by
Heaven, which is to say that possibilities of manifestation must be
existentiated in their proper cosmic moment. For Dr Coomaraswamy, the
metaphysical was so overwhelmingly real that, by comparison, historical
facts seemed of little importance. This perspective, obviously, is the very
antithesis of the popular attitude that sees history as confirming everything.
even the metaphysical. The facts of history, however, and especially of
sacred history, arc symbolic in the highest degree without this in any way
compromising their prescriptive reality on their own level; were it not so,
history would be a meaningless chaos. Dr Coomaraswamy was no Docetist,
as the fundamental thrust of his writings dearly indicates, whatever may
have been the emphasis in a particular context.
H. G. Rawlinson, CIE, formerly with the Ceylon and Indian Education
Service, and an art historian.
Dhamma, a Pali word (Sanskrit equivalent, dharma) meaning eternal law;
an important concept in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Sec introductory
chapter, The Buddhist Doctrine in AKC and 1. B. Horner, The Living
Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha, London, 1948.
To MR WESLEY E. NEEDHAM
March 14, 1945
Dear Mr Needham:
Many thanks. Im afraid I feel that Theosophy is for the most
part a pseudo- or distorted philosophia perennis. The same
applies to many brotherhood movements. Cf Rene
Guenons Le Theosophisme: historie dune pseudo-religion (Didier
et Richard, Paris, 1921).* On Guenon, see my articlc in Isis,
XXXIV, 1943. I think Plutarch is one of the masters of
Comparative Religion, and I have the highest regard for Philo.
Very sincerely,
* This and the other major works of Rene Guenon are listed in the
bibliographical section devoted to him.
Mr. Wesley E. Needham, West Haven, Connecticut, USA.
To PROFESSOR MUHAMMED HAFIZ SAYYED
August 20, 1947
My dear Professor Muhammcd Hafiz Sayyed:
It was a pleasure to receive your kind letter of the 6th inst.
Your recommendation to visit Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri
Aurobindo Ghosh reminded me of Jahangir and Dara Shikosh:
Their Vedanta is the same as our Tassawuf. I have the
highest regard for the former and I think he ranks with Sri
Ramakrishna. I should think it a great privilege to take the dust
off his feet. . . . On the other hand 1have not found Sri
Aurobindo Ghoshs writings very illuminating.
Very sincerely,
Professor Muhammed Hafiz Sayyed, not otherwise identified.
Sri Ramana Maharshi, 1879-1950, great Hindu saint of South India; see
Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, edited by Arthur Osborne, New York,
1972.
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, 1872-1950, Hindu philosopher with strong mod
ernist leanings; his teachings are not considered orthodox.
Jahangir, Mughul emperor (d 1627) noted for his wide cultural interests and
his Tuzuk (Memoirs), from which the citation in the letter was taken.
Dara Shikosh (or Shukoh), notorious among his contemporaries for what
they considered his unorthodox religious views; he sponsored a translation
into Persian of the fifty chief Upanishads.*
* Dara Shikoshs poor reputation with the exoteric authorities may have
stemmed from his public expression of Sufi interests and attitudes. Grandson
of Jahangir and son of Shahjahan, he was an unsuccessful contender for the
Peacock Thronelosing successively the throne, his eyes and his life to his
implacable brother, Aurangzeb. This translation of the Upanishads into
Persian (then the language of the court and the chief cultural medium) which
Shikosh sponsored was in turn translated about a century and a half later into
Latin, by the Frenchman, Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, and
published in 1801-02 in Europe (Strasbourg). Thus were the Upanishads
introduced into Europe, and it was this version that was used with much
devotion by Arthur Schopenhauer. Anquetil-Duperron rendered Mundaka
Upanishad III.3.2.9 thus: Quisquis ilium Brahm intelligit, Brahm fit, adding the
gloss, id est, Quisquis Deum intelligit, Deusfit; and he placed this last statement
in exergue to his two volume translation as a summation of upanishadic
doctrine. It is very instructive to compare this passage from the Mundaka
Upanishad with John xvii, 3: Haec est autem vita ceterna: ut congnoscant te, solum
Deum verum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum.
To GEORGE SARTON
August 13, 1939
My dear Sarton:
Herewith the review of Radhakrishnans book. You will see
that it is, on the whole, a criticism, and perhaps you will not
like it. However, it seems to me important to point out that
it is not really Hinduism, but a modern western interpretation
of Hinduism, that he is working with; in some respects, indeed,
it seems to me that he understands Christianity better than
Hinduism (we must remember that the exegetes of Christianity
have been Christians: the European exegetes of Hinduism, for
the most part, neither Christians nor Hindus). It is curious that
Radhakrishnan has nothing to say about Islam which in so
many respects can be regarded as a mediation between Eastern
and Western approaches.
I have just received and am already [51V) with great
admiration for the authors position and practical wisdom,
Peaks and Lamas by Marco Pallis (Cassell, London and
Toronto); who is not merely an explorer, but whose purpose it
was to embark on a genuine study at first hand of the Tibetan
doctrines, for their own sake and not out of mere scientific
curiosity (p 120). You will read the book with great pleasure
and will, I am sure, wish to commend it, especially as a model
of method to be followed in scicntific investigations that require
intimate relations with alien peoples. I remark especially the
concept of Translation as interpreted on pp 80-81.
Can I have some reprints of the review?
With kind regards,
Very sinccrcly,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian scholar and statesman, author of Indian
Philosophy and numerous other works.
To GEORGE SARTON
August 11, 1947
Dear Sarton:
Nikilananda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishrtaan excellent and
complete translation of Ms record, a remarkable docu
ment . . . Ill lend you my Ramakrishna if necessary, but look:
this is one of the most important books in the field of religion
published in the USA in this century, and why not insist on the
library getting it?
AKC
George Sarton, as above.
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated by Swami Nikilananda, The
Ramakrishna Vivckananda Center, New York, USA.
To JOHN LAYARD
August 11, 1947
Dear Dr Layard:
There is nothing better than the Vedantabut I know of no
Sri Ramana Maharshi living in Europe. I do not trust your
young Vedantists, nor any of the missionary Swamis; though
there may be exceptions, most of them are far from solid. I
would not hastily let anyone of them have the chance. . . . Not
even Vivckananda, were he still alive. Were Ramakrishna
himself available, that would be another matter.
Sincerely,
Dr John Layard, Jungian analyst and cultural anthropologist, author of
several works, including The Stone Men of Malakula, London, 1942.
To GRAHAM CAREY
April 5, 1943
Dear Carey:
I read your paper once over and think it good. It is necessary
but courageous to tackle the whole problem of superstitions
but difficult because each superstition presents a problem to our
understanding. I find that superstare has the primary meaning to
stand by, upon, or over, but also the meaning to survive. In the
latter sense superstition often coincides with tradition and
ought not necessarily to have a bad meaning at all. Even in the
first sense it should not necessarily have a bad meaningone
can stand by or take ones stand upon a perfectly good theory.
So many of these words (eg, dogmatic) have acquired a bad
meaning (a) because antitraditionalists despise the theory in
question and (b) because those who adhere to the theories
sometimes do so blindly and stupidly, ie, without understand
ing. (I met, by the way, some followers of Karl Barth, and was
shocked by their violence and conceit; they hold all Christian
mysticism in contempt).
Very sincerely,
Graham Carey, Catholic author, Fairhaven, Vermont, USA.
ANONYMOUS
Date not given
Hear. . .
Practically the whole of our cultural inheritance assumes and
originally took shape for the sake of a body of beliefs now
classified as superstition. Superstition, taken in its etymological
significance, as the designation of whatever stands over
(superstet) from a former age is an admirable word, partly
synonymous with tradition; wc have added to this essential
meaning, however, another and accidental connotation, that of
mistaken belief. Whatever we, with our knowledge of
empirical facts, still do in the same way that primitive man did,
wc do not call a superstition, but a rational procedure, and wc
credit our primitive ancestors accordingly with the beginning
of scicncc; a second class of things that wc still do, rather by
habit than deliberately, the laying of foundation stones, for
example, wc do not call superstitions, only because it docs not
occur to us to do so. Whatever on the other hand we do not do
and think of as irrational, particularly in the field of rites, but
still see done by peasants or savages, or indeed by Roman
Catholics, Hindus or Shamanists, wc call superstitions, mean
ing so far by we those of us whose education has been
scientific, and for whom whatever cannot be experimentally
verified and made use of to predict events is not knowledge.
On the other hand, we have inherited from the past an
enormous body of works of art, for example, to which we still
attach a very high value: we consider that a knowledge of these
things belongs to the higher things of life, and do not call a
man cultured unless he is more or less aware of them. At the
same time our anthropological and historically analytical
knowledge makes us very well aware that none of these
thingscathedrals, epics, liturgies for examplewould not
have been what they arc, but for the superstitious beliefs to
which their shapes conform; and to say that these things would
not have been what they are is the same as to say that they
would not have been at all and to recognize that we could not,
for example, have written the Volsung Saga, or the Mahabharata,
or the Odyssey, but only a psychological novel. We could not
have written Genesis or the in principio hymns of the Rg Veda,
but only text-books of geology, astronomy and physics. To
deal with this situation we have devised an ingenious method of
saving face, preserving intact our faith in progress and
satisfaction in the values of our own civilization as disting
uished from the barbarism of others. In the field of myth and
epic, for example, we assume a nucleus of historical fact to
which the imagination of the literary artist has added marvels in
order to enhance his effects. For ourselves, we have outgrown
the childish faith in the deus ex machina, who indeed often
spoils for us the humanistic values that the story has for us.
We feel in much the same way about whatever seems to us
immoral or amoral in the text. In reading, we exercise an
unconscious censorship, discounting whatever seems to us
incredible, and also whatever seems to us inconvenient. Guided
by the psycho-analyst, we arc prepared to take the fairy-tale out
of the hands of children altogether; even the churchman, whose
job and business it is to expound the Gospel fairy-tales,
connives in this.
Having by means of these reservations made the epic safe for
democracy, we arc fully prepared to admit and admire its
literary values. In the same way, ignoring the reasons for
Egyptian, Greek or Medieval architecture, we are fully
prepared to recognize the significance of these aesthetic
facts . . . .
This was an incomplete hand-written letter found amongst AKCs other
letters. It was unsigned.
To ALFRED O. MENDEL
August 29, 1946
Dear Dr Mendel:
Tradition has nothing to do with any ages, whether
dark, primaeval, or otherwise. Tradition represents doc
trines about first principles, which do not change; and
traditional institutions represent the application of these princi
ples in particular environments and in this [way they] acquire a
certain contingency which docs not pertain to the principles
themselves. So, for example, as Guenon remarks on my Why
Exhibit Works of Art?, pp 86-88:
une note repondant a un critique avait rcproche a lautcur de
prcconiscr le retour a un etat dcs choscs passes, cclui du
moycn age, alors quil sagissait cn realite dun rctour
premiers principcs, comme si ces principes pouvait dependre
dunc question depoquc, et comme si leur vcrite netait pas
csscntiellement intcmporclle!
For an example of how the word tradition can be misused,
see my correspondence with Ames printed in the current issue
of the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. If it is so misused
very often (pejoratively) it is because under present conditions
of education, the educated are acquainted with tradition
only in its past aspects, if at all, and not with the living
tradition.
You may be right about slants in writing. I attach
importance to continuity (tendency to write successive words
without lifting the pen), and think this corresponds to the
faculty of reading sentences as a whole, rather than word by
word. This is often very conspicuous in Sanskrit, where the
crasis often results in the presentation of whole sentences in the
form of one solid block.
Very sincerely,
Alfred O Mendal was a professor of psychology at Sarah Lawrcnce
College, Bronxville, New York, USA, and an authority on graphology. He
was the author of Personality in Handwriting, New York, 1947.
To THE JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS AND ART CRITICISM
December 27, 1945
A Rejoinder to Professor Ames:
In writing to Professor Van Ames (without thought of
publication) I had not meant to discuss the relative merits of his
and my points of view, but only to say that he did not seem to
be using the word tradition in the traditional sense; and
this he admits. I think I have shown in my Why Exhibit Works of
Art? (1943, now op) and Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought?
(to appear immediately) that there is a theory of art that has
been entertained universally, and with which there has been
disagreement only at exceptional times or by individualswith
respect to whom I would ask, with Plato, Why consider the
inferior Philosophers?. In any case, those who appeal to
tradition arc not putting forward views of their own.
Professor Van Ames or anyone else is entirely free to disagree
with the traditional theory. I do maintain, however, that this
theory must be understood if we arc to avoid the pathetic fallacy
of reading into the minds of primitive, classic, medieval and
oriental artists our own aesthetic preoccupations. That this is a
very real danger is made apparent in the way we use such terms
as inspiration (sec my article, sv, in The Dictionary of the
Arts), ornament, nature, and even art itself in senses
that are very different from those of the artists and the theorists
of the periods of which we are writing the history. And this
makes it very difficult for the student to grasp the real spirit of
the age that he is supposed to be studying objectively.
AKC
Professor Van Meter Ames of the Department of philosophy at the
University of Cincinnati. In his letter to AKC, he wrote: You are quite right
that I do not use the word tradition" as those use it who appeal to
tradition. They form an impressive company. And they must of course
dismiss me as not belonging to the spiritually educated. . . . Here I can
only say that I belong to a different tradition: pragmatic, humanist,
pluralist . . . . In a covering letter to the editor of the journal here in
question, AKC wrote: If you think there is any chance Professor Ames
would think I am casting an aspersion on him, I am quite ready to strike out
the line with respect to . . . philosophers.
A note to the Art Bulletin on a review in volume XX (p 126) by
Richard Florsheim of AKCs Is Art a Superstition or a Way of
Life?; see Bibliography for the several appearances of this
articlc.
In reviewing my Is Art a Superstition or a Way of Life?,
Mr Florsheim assumes my advocacy of a return to a more or
less feudal order . . . an earlier, but dead order of things. In
much the same way a reviewer of Patron and Artist (Apollo,
February 1938, p 100) admits that what I say is all very true,
but assumes that the remedy wc Mcdiaevalists (meaning
such as Gill, Glcizes, Carey and me) suggest is to somehow
get back to an earlier social organization.
These false, facile assumptions enable the critic to evade the
challenge of our criticism, which has two main points: (1) that
the current appreciation of ancient or exotic arts in terms of
our own very special and historically provincial view of art
amounts to a sort of hocus pocus, and (2) that under the
conditions of manufacture taken for granted in current artistic
doctrinc man is given stones for bread. These propositions arc
either true or not, and cannot honestly be twisted to mean that
wc want to put back the hands of the clock.
Neither is it true that wc do not pretend to offer much in the
way of a practical remedy; on the contrary, wc offer
everything, that is to somehow get back to first principles.
Translated from metaphysical into religious terms this means
Seek yc first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. What this can have to
do with a sociological archaism or eclecticism, I fail to see.
A return to first principles would not recreate the outward
aspects of the Middle Ages, though it might enable us to better
understand these aspects. I have nowhere said that I wished to
return to the Middle Ages. In the pamphlet reviewed, I said
that a cathedral was no more beautiful in kind than a telephone
booth in kind*, and expressly excluded questions of preference,
ie, of wishful thinking. What I understand by wishful
thinking (cf p 2 of my essay) is that kind of faith in progress
which leads Mr Florsheim to identify earlier with dead, a
type of thinking that ignores all distinction of essence from
accident and seems to suggest a Marxist or at any rate a
definitely anti-traditional bias.
Things that were true in the Middle Ages arc still true, apart
from any question of styles; suppose it eternally true, for
example, that beauty has to do with cognition, does it follow
from this that in order to be consistent I must decorate my
house with crockets?or am I forbidden to admire an
aeroplane? Dr Wackernagcl, reviewed in Art Bulletin XX, p
123, warns against the lack of purpose in most of our modem
art. Need this imply a nostalgia for the Middle Ages on his
part? If I assert that a manufacture by art is humanely speaking
superior to an industry without art, it does not follow that I
envisage knights in armor. If I see that manufacture for use is
better for the consumer (and we are all consumers) than a
manufacture for profit, this has nothing to do with what should
be manufactured. If I accept that vocation is the natural basis of
individual progress (the word has a real meaning in an
individual application, the meaning namely of werden was du
hist), I am not necessarily wrong merely because this position
was earlier maintained by Plato and in the Bhagavad Gita.
I do not in fact pretend to foresee the style of a future Utopia;
however little may be the value I attach to modern civiliza
tion, however much higher may have been the prevalent
values of the medieval or any other early or still existing social
order, I do not think of any of these as providing a ready made
blueprint for future imitation. I have no use for pseudo-Gothic
in any sense of the word. The sooner my critics realize this, and
that I am not out to express any views, opinions or philosophy
of my own, the sooner will they find out what I am talking
about.
*This is an overstatement. Beauty demands compatibility of form and
function, but the latter must itself be noble and not essentially trivial. AKC
exaggerated from time to time in order to make his point in a particular
context.
Crocket: in medieval architecture and styles deriving therefrom, a small
ornament placed on inclined or vertical surfaces, usually in the form of leaves
but occasionally in that of small animals.
To THE EDITOR OF APOLLO
February 23, 1938
Dear Sirs:
Referring to your review of Patron and Artist in the
February issue, p 100, may 1say that wc Mcdiacvalists (I can
speak at least for myself, Mr Carey and Eric Gill) do not hold
or argue that wc should somehow get back to an earlier social
organization, however superior to our own wc may hold that
such an organization may have been. Wc arc no more interested
in pscudo-Gothic, whether architectural or social, than wc
arc admirers of the present social order. Our remedies arc not
stylistic, but metaphysical and moral; wc propose to return to
first principles and to acccpt their consequences. These con-
scqucnccs might involve a social order in some respects of a
mediaeval type; they would ccrtainly include a rehabilitation of
the idea of making as a vocation, manufacture for use, and an
altered view of the use to which machinery might be put. But
wc arc not using the Middle Ages or the Orient as a blue print
for a new socicty; wc use them to point our moral, which is
that you cannot gather figs of thistles. Wc suppose that what is
needed for a better social order and more happiness is not a blue
print but a change of heart. Wc arc not so naive as to suppose
that any social style, whether democratic, socialist, fascist, or
mediaeval, however enforced, could of itself effect a change
of heart.
Very truly,
Graham Carey, Benson, Vermont, USA.
Eric Gill, cf Introduction.
To KURT F. LEIDECKER
November 16, 1941
Dear Dr Lcidcckcr:
The least important thing about Guenon is his personality or
biography. I endose an articlc by Maclvcr, which please return
(also The E at Delphi, which please keep). Guenons own
affiliations are essentially Arabic. He lies in retirement in Cairo:
he knows Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit. (His two books on
spiritualism and theosophy were clearances of the ground,
preparatory to his other work. Thus no one can suppose that in
his metaphysical work he is talking of any kind of occultism).
The fact is that he has the invisibility that is proper to the
complete philosopher: our teleology can only be fulfilled when
we really become no one. 1shall do some of the words such as
caitya for you very shortly. A great deal of Guenons important
work appears in Etudes Traditionelles, during the last 10 years.
I question the importance of item 4 for your Dictionary. 1
think item 12 should be Terminology (class concepts and
periods). Item 9, add Exhibition. Item 17, I should say
sun-wheel (avoid constant repetition of the word symbol, and for
more precise indication).
1may be doing Symbol (in general) for Shipley, you want
only symbols (in particular).
Very sincerely,
Dr Kurt Lcidcckcr was working on a Dictionary of Archelogy which was
interrupted by World War II, when he was assigned to the Air Documents
Center where he compiled the American Aeronautical Dictionary.
Joseph T. Shipley, Dictionary of Word Origins, Philosophical Library, New York,
1945.
Rene Guenon, pioneering traditional writer and outstanding metaphysician;
a contemporary of AKC. See bibliographical section at the end of these
letters.
Etudes Traditionnelles, 11 quai St-Michcl, Paris.
LErreur spirite, see Bibliography.
Le Theosophisme, histoirc dune pseudo-religion', sec Bibiliography.
To MR J. C. ABREU
October 7, 1946
Dear Mr Abrcu:
In reply to your inquiry, I am in fundamental agreement
with M Rene Guenon; this might not exclude some divergence
on minor matters. His books arc in the process of translation;
four have already been published by Luzac (London). I
published an articlc on his work entitled Eastern Wisdom and
Western Knowledge in Isis Vol XXXIV, 1943 and this articlc,
brought up to date (nearly) will be included in a volume of
essays to be published by the Asia Press, NY, this fall, entitled
Am I My Brother's Keeper? My own bibliography is a long one;
there is a list of the more important items printed in Psychiatry,
VI, 8, 1945.
Mr Guenon lives in Cairo, and is a member of a Darwesh
order, the Shaikh Abdul Wahid. Before that he lived and
wrote in Paris. 1think any truly descriptive writing about the
end of an age must be bitter; but I hardly think Guenons
own feeling is that, but his position would be that it must be
that offenses should comc, but woe unto them through whom
they comc. He is an exponent of the traditional Way by
following which the individual can save himself by spiritual
implication from disintegration, whatever the external condi
tions may be.
Very sincerely,
Mr J. C. Abreu, Vcdado, Havana, Cuba.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt, was accordcd the honorific Shaikh and took the
Muslim name Abdul Wahid Yahia, ie, John, Servant of the Unique.
To PROFESSOR JOSEPH L. MCNAMARA
December 5, 1945
Dear McNamara:
I dont think Guenon could be charged with dualism. In the
last analysis the devil is the ego-principlc, that which asserts
cogito ergo sum*: and so Philo and Rumi equate the dragon
whom none but God can overcome with the sensitive soul, the
personality in which the psychoanalysts arc so much
interested. Their good intentions are beside the point. The
soul will remain a congcrics or legion whatever wc do, and
the integration can only be in its principle, the spirit, in which
all these become one.
Professor J. L. McNamara, Roslindalc, Massachusetts, USA.
Cf Who Is Satan and Where Is Hell?, by AKC, in Review of Religion,
November 1947.
* This is true as far as it goes, but the notion of Devil or Satan cannot be
confined to a psychological context. What is in question is a cosmic force that
is prior to humanity itself, a force of compression and separation, of spiritual
darkness and negation, which is perceived by human intelligence as personal
or personality.
To m. r en g u n o n
April 12, 1946
My dear M. Guenon:
I agree with you as to the limit implied in Tagores writings.
But 1do not see why you object to the equation ananda =
felicitas or delectatio. The root is nand, to take pleasure, with the
added self-referent prefix a. And apart from the ordinary
usages, one cannot ignore BU IV. 1.6, re Brahma: What is Its
bliss (Ananda)?, verily, to the mind; it is by the mind that one
betakes oneself to the woman, a son of his born of her. This is
his bliss: the highest Brahma is the mind. Here manas (mind),
of course, is equal to the Greek nous, intellectus vel spiritus, and
the woman is Vac; the son is the concept, and ananda is the
divine delight in the conception and birth of the spoken Logos.
Ananda is the divine delight in what Eckhart calls the act of
fecundation latent in eternity.
In connection with the question, Is the Buddhist reception
into the order of Bhikkus an initiation? I am confirmed in
thinking so, since I now find further that the preliminary
shaving and lustrationde regieis referred to as an abhiseka
and, further, that the accepted disciple becomes a son of the
Buddha and is endowed with royalty (adhipatya). The
lustration corresponds to a baptism, which was certainly in
origin an initiation.
I also find an interesting correlation of Buddhist ksana and
Sufi andar waqtboth moments without duration, and the
only locus (loka) of real being as distinguished from becom
ing (ousia from genesis, essentia from esse). This moment is the
muktas world in the yonder world. It is this moment that
every thing amasunistatai kai apoleipei (Plutarch, Moralia 392
C). The succession of these nows makes what wc know as
duration but in reality, all these instants arc one.
Very sinccrcly,
Rcnc Guenon, Cairo, Egypt.
To r en g u n o n
April 17, 1947
My dear M. Guenon:
I have been reading your GrandeTriade with great pleasure
and benefit. The following arc a few points that have occurred
to me: the character seems to have its exact equivalent in
the sign shown as fig 1in my svayamatrnna of which I hope a
copy has already reached you.
The Buddhist term sappurisa ( = sat-purusa) seems to express
the idea of I'homme veritable, while utiama-pumsa would
correspond to Ihomme transcendent. Thus Dhammapada 54: sabba
disa sappurisampavati, omnes regiones vir probus perflat (Fausbolls
translation). Also Uttama purisa is commonly an epithet of
Buddha.
Cf also: p 53, pouvoir du vajra, Hcraclcitus fr 38
p 119, on the Triple power, cf in my Spiritual Authority
and Temporal Power . . . . (especially as regards the Gnostic
formulation cited on p 44).
In several places you speak of Providence and Destiny. In
English, I should prefer to speak of Providence and Fate:
making Providcncc = Destiny. Our Destiny is our destination;
fate arc the accidcnts that befall us enroute, and that may help or
hinder, but cannot changc our ultimate destiny.
La GrandeTriade seems to me an especially valuable treatise,
and I hope an English translation will appear soon.
M. Pallis and Rama are now in Kalimpong where the Lama
Wangyai met them on arrival. They spent 12 days in S India
and visited Sri Ramana Maharsi.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt.
La Grande Triade, Rcvuc dc la Tabic Ronde, Nancy, France; for other
editions, sec Bibliography.
Svayamatrnna: Jatiua Coeli, Zaimoxis, Paris, II, 1939, no 1.
Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of
Government, Journal of the American Oriental Society, New Haven, Connecti
cut, 1942.
Marco Pallis, London, England, see letter p 30.
Rama, AKCs son, Rama Poonambulam Coomaraswamy.
Lama Wangyal, cf Peaks and Lamas by Marco Pallis; for various editions, sec
Bibliography.
Sri Ramana Maharsi, South Indian Saint; cf letter, p. 39.
To GEORGE SARTON
April 29, 1947
My dear Sarton:
Many thanks for your letter. Guenons controversial
volumes are no doubt less interesting in some respects, but, it is
to be considered that he alone puts forward what is essentially
the Indian criticism of the present situation. For this reason and
because of their direct relation to your work, I send you these
two only. His others, expository works, eg, LHomme et son
devenir seloti le Vedanta, Les Etats multiple de Ietre, Le Symbolisme
de la croix, etc, are not only the best and clearest exposition of
Indian theory I know, but almost the only expositions of pure
metaphysics that have so far as I know appeared in these
days . . . .
I had the very great pleasure of meeting Professor Buckler of
Obcrlin and hearing his address on The Shah Nama and the
Geneologia Regni Dei (will appear in JAOS this year and should
interest you. His thesis being in part that the Shah Nama is an
epic of the kingdom of God on earth analagous to the Christus
saga underlying the Four Gospelsa point of view which I can
fully agree . . . .
Very sincerely,
PS: If you have not seen it, do see Grey Owl, Pilgrims of the Wild
(Lovat, Dickson, London, 1934)one of the very best books
that has appeared for a long time.
George Sarton, Professor of the history of scicncc, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt; for his several book titles, sec Bibliography.
F. W. Buckler, department of church history. Graduate School of Theology,
Oberlin College, Obcrlin, Ohio; author of several papers that interested
AKC, such as that mentioned above and "Regnum et ecclesia, Church History,
III, March 1934.
To MR S. C. LEE
March 20, 1947
Dear Mr Lee:
I reply to yours of March 8, and send you below the message
which would be the gist of what I should have to say were I to
be present at your International Festival, for the success of
which you have my best wishes.
If men arc to live at peace with one another, they must learn
to understand and to think with one another. The primary
obstacle to such an understanding is, to quote Prof Burtt,
the complacent assumption that all tenable solutions of all
real problems can or will be found in the Western tradition.
This smug and pharaisaic complacency is one of the causes of
war . . . the cause that philosophers arc primarily responsi
ble to remove.
The most dangerous form of this complacency is to be found
in the conviction that Christianity is not only true, but the
only true religion; for this leads to repeated attempts to
impose upon other peoples a Christian civilization, so-
called. It was of this civilization that Thomas Traherne
remarked that verily, there is no savage nation under the sun
that is more absurdly barbarous than the Christian world.
The opinion persists, howeverit was recently enunciated
by no less an authority than the Professor of Divinity in the
University of Edinburghthat we Westerners owe (it to)
the peoples of these missionary lands to destroy their
cultures and replace them with our own. And why? Because
these arc essentially religious, but not Christian cultures! For
so long as this point of view governs the attitudes of the
Western people who call themselves progressive towards
others whom they call backwardeveryone will rccognizc at
once the portrait ofthe lion painted by himselfthere will
be no peace on earth.
I trust you will be able to read this message to your audience.
I made a speech on these lines at Kenyon College last year and
the audience was most responsive. Cf also my article in the
United Nations World, No 1, and the little book just published
by John Day (New York).
Yours very sincerely,
Mr S. C. Lee, director of the International Institute and International Center,
Michigan State College, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
For What Heritage and to Whom Are the English-speaking Peoples
Responsible?, AKC, in The Heritage of the English-speaking Peoples and Their
Responsibility, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 1947.
The Curse of Foreign Rule, AKC, United Nations World, February 1947.
To PROFESSOR PITIRIM A. SOROKIN
January 9, 1947
Dear Mr Sorokin:
From time to time I remember the problem you have been
set, and always come back to this, that the only way of
salvation is through philosophy, that philosophy which with
its purification and deliverance, ought not to be resisted (Phaedo
82 D). I think all wars, etc, are the projections of the war
within us, the tragic conflict between ought and 1want; in
fact this is explicit in James iv, 1 (q v). The first desideratum is
to teach men to be at peace with themselves (Contest of Homer
and Hesiod, 320). From this point one might proceed to outline
ones phaideia, or concept of the necessary cultivation. The
problem becomes one of how to regenerate philosophy as a
pattern of life. And by the way, I thought John Wilds new
book pretty good in this direction.
Very sincerely,
Professor Pitirim Alexandrovitch Sorokin, professor of sociology, Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. USA.
John Wild was a well known Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.
He may have been the author of Science and the Scientific Scepticism of our
Time, apparently a pamphlet published by a body calling itself the Society for
a Catholic Commonwealth. His comments were included in Wilbur Griffith
Katzs Natural Law and Human Nature, 1953.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
March 14, 1941
Sir,
In your issue of last December 19, the Bishop of Ely (via
Mr Murry) is quoted as saying that there is no reason why the
clergy should have any better understanding of the causcs of the
war than have the altogether admirable men conducting the
affairs of the nation. This can only be sustained on the assump
tion that the clergy referred to arc no longer in any real sense of
the word clcrgy, but only admirable men of the same kind as
the politicians who, whatever their other virtues may be, can
hardly be described as disinterested critics of the industrial
system. But it is precisely the clergy who should be and arc
assumed to be, philosophers in Platos and Aristotles sense of
the word; and the philosopher who is disinterested by
hypothesis, may and ought to understand much better than the
politician whose immediate task is to conduct a war, what is the
first cause of war. Plato finds the cause of war in the body
because we must earn money for the sake of the body
(Phaedo 66C). This does not mean at all that the boy should be
ignored; everything that Plato advocates is with a view to the
simultaneous satisfaction of the needs of the body and the soul
and for the good of the whole man. It does mean that the more
wc are philosophers or guided by philosophy, the more our
most serious interests are rather spiritual than physical; and the
less we are men of property or evaluate civilisation merely in
terms of comfort and safety, the fewer will be the occasions of
war, whether international or imperialistic.
AKC
The New English Weekly, London; full title: The New English Weekly and the
New Age, a Review of Public Affairs, Literature and the Arts, edited by Philip
Mairet with an editorial committcc consisting of Mrs Jessie R Oragc (sole
proprietor), Maurice B Reckitt, Pamela Travers, T. S. Eliot, Rowland
Kenney and W. T. Symons. AKC wrote frequently to this journal
throughout the last eight years of his life.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
February 21, 1946
Sir,
Apropos of your own remarks on vocation in your issue
of January 17th, I call your readers attention to the fact that
metier is etymologically ministerium, a ministry. Another
form of the word is minister, ie, trade, and trade is a tread,
or a way of life.
I agree with Mr Fordham that it is to be hoped that a partial
paralysis will creep over the trade of the world. When
nations grow old, and the arts grow cold, and commerce settles
on every tree (William Blake): When the timber trade is
good, permanent famine reigns in the Ogowe district (Albert
Schweitzer): No one looking for peace and quiet has any
business looking for international trade (G. H. Gratton and
G. R. Leighton in The Future of Foreign Trade, 1947). All this
applies chiefly, of course, to trade in necessities and raw
materials, and much less to a reasonable exchange of finished
goods of the highest quality. It is as regards necessities, at least,
that a community should be self-sufficing, or, if it is not, it will
feel compelled to get what it wants elsewhere, even by fraud or
force.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
October 4, 1945
Sir,
I should like to call attention to some principles of the
Rural Work Movement on India. In a recent address to trainees,
the leader, Shri Bharatan Kumarappa asked what it is we want
to work for, mere material prosperity, or human develop
ment? He pointed out that even amongst Socialists, the
question of whether an abundance of goods is necessary for
human well-being is never so much as raised. The rest I quote
from the Aryan Path of August:
Shri Kumarappa makes out a strong case against large-scale
production for India, excepting such key industries as
provide machinery, raw materials for small industries, public
utilities, etc. He shows how producing enormous quantities
drives others into unemployment: how competition for
distant markets leads to strife; how factory routine deprives
the worker of opportunities such as cottage production offers
for the development of intelligence, initiative, and the artistic
sense.
I say that the main cause of world wars is the pursuit of
world-trade, and that to dream of peace on other conditions
than those of local self-sufficiency is ridiculous. Moreover, in a
brave new world, the cultural domination of America is even
more to be dreaded than that of England: for these United
States are not even a bourgeoisie, but a proletarian society fed
on soft-bun bread (these words arc those of a well-known
large scale baking companys advertisement of its product), and
thinking soft-bun thoughts. The citations above arc encourag
ing at least to this extent that if, as some think and hope,
modern western ways of life arc about to swallow up all other
forms ofculture (which God forbid!); some of these others
have not the slightest intention of going under without a fight,
and that the end is not yet.
AKC
Bharatan Kumarappa, Capitalism, Socialism or Villagism? Shakti Karyalayam,
Madras, 1946.
Aryan Path (Bombay), August 1945.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
March 28, 1940
Sir,
Mr Durrell, in your issue for January 24, 1940, p 209, thinks
in Lao Tzu (and by implication in Chuang Tzu) there is
nothing applicable to the Distressed Areas. This is scarcely
the case, unless by applicable Mr Durrcll means to refer only
to symptoms and to ignore causes. The Taoist view is that evil
arises primarily from the interest we take in other peoples
affairs, and that the only real contribution that a man can make
to the betterment of the world is to improve himself; just as in
Christianity, it is a mans first duty to love himself and to seek
out his own salvation. So Chuang Tzu writes:
Prince: I wish to love my people, and by cultivation of duty
towards ones neighbour to put an end to war. Can this be
done?
Hsu Wu Kwci: It cannot. Love for the people is the root of
all evil to the people. Cultivation of duty towards ones
neighbour is the origin of all fighting . . . . If your
Highness will only abstain, that will be enough. Cultivate
the sincerity that is witnin your breast, so as to be
responsive to the conditions of your cnvironcment, and be
not agrcssivc. The people will thus escape death; and what
need then to put an end to war? (Giles translation, chap
24).
Cultivation of ones duty to ones neighbour is the white
mans burden as he conceives it, of which the consequ
ence is the neighbours death. The responsibility for the
Distressed Areas rests on everyone who accepted the
current philosophy of life. (Civilization consists in the
multiplication and refinement of human wants, quoted in
a recent issue of Science and Culture.) As you have very
justly remarked, the use of military force is hardly
distinguishable, morally, from the use of economic force.
If we could only refrain, not only from doing evil to
others, but also from trying to do good to others (ic, good
as we conceive, it and not as they have conceived it), and
try instead to be good for them, there might be no need to
put an end to war. This, by the way, may not mean that
war would entirely cease, but that it would take on again
an entirely different and higher value.
Yes, mans only responsibility appears to be to himself.
We are, unfortunately, too selfish, therefore too etfusive, to
endure such a limitation of our responsibility; we have desired
peace, but not the things that make for peace. It is, however,
prcciscly such a minding ones own business as the limitation
of responsibility implies that Taoism envisages a remedy for
war.
I recommend to Mr Durrcll (and others) Rene Guenons La
Crise du monde moderne and Marco Pallis Peaks and Lamas.
An entirely different question: Mr Eliot wants a word to
express the antithesis of Christian. As we have Anti-Christ,
why not anti-Christian? Nothing that merely expresses
Non Christian will do, because the real issue is not as
between Christians and non-Christians, but between believ
ers and non-believers; or better, between comprchensor
and profane. In other words, the issue is between those
whose moral judgements arc based on principles, and those
whose conduct, whether good or bad, is always unprinci
pled.
AKC
Chuang Tzu, translated by Herbert Giles, London, 1889.
Rene Guenon, La Crise du monde moderne; English version, The Crisis of the
Modern World, London, 1942. See Bibliography.
Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, various editions; sec Bibliography.
To STEPHEN HOBHOUSE
July 15, 1945
Dear Mr Hobhouse:
Many thanks for your letter of June 4. I certainly hope you
will be able to publish an American edition of William Law; I
think it would be widely read, especially by those who know
something of John Woolman and his like, and that it would
have a good sale.
Regarding the second paragraph on p 309, I think that in the
note you might point out that the doctrinc which some
(amongst others, E. Lampert, more recently, in The Divine
Realm, 1944) reject is certainly Roman Catholic, see St Thomas
Aquinas, Sum Theol 1.45: Creatio, quae est emanatio totius esse, est
ex non ente, quod est nihil.
P 97: essentially a discussion of Platonic love (an expression
first used by Marsilio Ficino, and made the basis of the
fraternity of his Academy), or as formulated in the Upanishads,
that all things whatever arc dear, not for their own sakes, but
for the sake of the Self, the immanent deity, Self-same in our
neighbour and ourselves. Cf my Akimcanna: sclf-naughting,
in New Indian Antiquary, III, 1940. Other refs: Hermes XIII.4,
Wouldst that thou, too, hadst been loosed from thyself;
Rumi, Mathnawi, 1.2449, Were it not for the shakle, who
would say I am I?; Maitri Upanishad VI.20, he who sees the
lightning flash of the spiritual-Sclf is of himself bereft, and
VI.28, If to son and wife and family he is attached, for him,
never at all (like Christs If any man would be my disciple,
let him hate his father and mother. . .yea, and his own self
also). . . . [and cfthe] Skr ahamkara, the I-making concept
And as I also wrote,
Contra Cartesium
That / can think is proof Thou art,
The only individ-uality from whose dividuality
My postulated individuality depends.
with reference, in part, to the expression of the Bhagavad Gita:
undivided in things divided.
The fundamental problem of war is in ourselves; actual war
is the external reflection of the inner conflict of self with Self.
Whoever has made his peace with himself will be at peace with
all men.
The importance of occasional reference to the Oriental
parallels is especially great at present, because peace, with all
its implications is something in which the whole world must
cooperate, it cannot be imposed on the world by any part of it;
and the basic doctrinal formulae represent the language of the
common universe of discourse on that level of reference where
alone agreement can be reached on the first principles in
relation to which activities must be judged. Partly for this
reason (but also for clarification), in my own writing, I always
cite authority from many different sources, as demonstration
of an actual agreement that we often overlook.
I would be happy to receive any of the reprints of your
pamphlets that you speak of.
Stephen Hobhouse, Broxbourne, England, editor, Selected Mystical Writings
of William Law, London, 1940.
William Law, eighteenth century Anglican divine, non-juror, and spiritual
writer influenced by Jacob Boehme.
Following are several editorial notes relevant to the above letter, the first
from the New English Weekly, March 9, 1944, p 180:
Coomaraswamy contra Descartes forms an anthology of angry and yet
deeply reflective comments, of which the most striking is this brief poem
(vide supra). He himself thought the poem so concentrated that few could
grasp its meaning, and accordingly added a note when it was first
published: The argument is not Cogito ergo sum, but Cogito ergo ESTwe
become, because He is.
Elsewhere in his writings, he returned to Descartes famous axiom,
sometimes with irony, sometimes with comments developed from Indian
metaphysics: Self is not an inference drawn from behaviour, but directly
known in the experience I; this is a proposition quite different from
Decartes Cogito ergo sum, where the argument is based on behaviour and
leaves us still in an ego-centric predicament. (Time and Eternity, Ascona,
Switzerland, 1947, p 23). Or again: Buddhist doctrine proceeds by
elimination. Our own constitution and that of the world is repeatedly
analyzed, and as each one of the five physical and mental factors of the
transient personality with which the untaught manyfolk identify
themselves is listed, the pronouncement follows, 'That is not my
self. . . . You will observe that among these childish mentalities who
identify themselves with their accidents, the Buddha would have included
Descartes, with his Cogito ergo sum (Hinduism and Buddhism, New York,
1943). Again: The ego demonstrated by Descartes Cogito ergo sum (a
phrase that represents the nadir of European metaphysics) is nothing but a
fatally determined process, and by no means our real Self ("Prana-citi,
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1943, p 108).
And in a manuscript note in the possession of Rama P. Coomaraswamy,
AKC wrote: The traditional position is that God alone can properly say
I. Descartes Cogito ergo sum is a circular argument, an ego subsisting in
both the subject and the predicate. See also the letter on pp 9-11.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
May 3, 1944
Sir,
Mr John Bates point about the East, made in your issue
of March 30, is well taken. It is perfectly true that the East that
can be easily knownthe minority East that Westerners can
easily meetis already dazzled by modern Western civilization
(the situation is very clearly exposed by W. Massey in his
Introduction to Rene Guenons East and West). When I said We
(Asiatics) do not admire or desire the forms of modern western
civilization, I was including in this we, not the aforesaid
minority, but (1) a very few, such as the Pasha of Marrakech,
and Mahatma Gandhi (with his unmodern attitude to the
technological achievements of Western civilization, [and] his
distaste for Western democracy, to quote Captain Ludovici),
and a good many others who know the modern West only too
well, and who often appear to be Westernized, but are in fact
profoundly orthodox, old fashioned and reactionary, and (2) an
enormous majority who, because of their illiteracy or
inaccessibility and for other reasons, arc still in order and
more or less immune to infection. Even in Japan there survives
at least a profound belief in the divinity of kings, and that is the
best ground on which one who hopes for better things there
could try to build. Mr Quaritch Wales has pointed out in his
Years of Blindness that western governments have never won the
hearts of Eastern peoples, and that very much of the Oriental
imitation of Western manners amounts to little more than
lip-service paid to the dominating power in order to weather
the storm.
General Chiang-Kai-Shek and Pandit Nehru arc not Asia.
From our point of view such men, however great, are
already lost souls, and all that we expect from them arc the
expediencies that may be necessary to the preservation of our
very physical and political existence; we do not look to them
for enlightenment. I am well aware that our still vast majority
is on the losing side (at least in appearance) and diminishing in
numbers, and I suspect that all humanity is destined to reach the
subhuman levels of the modern West before an effective
reaction can be hoped for. I do not mind belonging to what
may seem to be the losing side and a forlorn hope; for if one
docs not take the right side, regardless of what seems likely to
happen (and all things arc possible with God!), one bccomcs a
fatalist in the bad sense of the word. I callcd attention to the
pasha of Marrakcch bccausc it is all-important for those,
however few, who in the West arc all against the present
(dis-)ordcr, to know and join hands with, and to cooperate
with those elsewhere who arc seeking to preserve what the
Western world of impoverished reality has already lost,
those for whom life still has a meaning and a purpose, and who
would rather save their souls alive than have all these
thingsmodern plumbing includedadded to them. I think
it would be true to say that the majority of colored peoples still
despise the white man and his works and would rather than
anything else in the world, be rid of him.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
March 16, 1944
Sir,
I should like to call your readers attention to the words
of the Pasha of Marrakech (Morocco) reported in an interview
which was published recently in the Boston Herald, and may not
have comc to their notice. The Pasha says: The Moslem world
docs not want the wondrous American world or the incredible
American way of life. Wc want the world of the Koran. . . . At
the bottom of Americas attitude is the assumption that all the
world desires to be American. And this assumption is false.
What is thus stated for the Moslem world, and is true for the
greater part of it, is csscntialy true for the greater part of the
whole Asiatic world. We (Europeans) are only conscious of this
profound and well-advised cultural resistance to our civilizing
mission because (1) to admit it would be offensive to our pride
and (2) our contacts with English speaking Asiatics (and in
India, often only with the servant class) arc only with a
minority in whom wc have been able to implant the seeds of
discontent with their own traditions, or who fawn upon us, for
the sake of what they can get out of us. At the same time, it
must not be overlooked that amongst those Orientals who have
lived, and studied longest in the West arc to be found some of
those who are least of all inclined to accept what the Western
world now means by'progress, and who feel (to quote Powys
Evans from your issue of December 23rd) that if the wrong
road is taken, the greater the progress down it, the worse the
result, and the sooner there is a reaction, the better. Speaking
for these and for the inarticulate majority that has not been
infected by the delusion of progress, I would say that we
(Asiatics) do not admire or desire the forms of modern Western
civilization, but only to re-form (reconstitute) our own.
.AKC
To SIDNEY L. GULICK
May 6, 1943
Dear Mr Gulick:
It is very likely true that further correspondence will not help
us much. However, I will say a few words on this matter of
progress. It is a question of values; where you are thinking of
quantitative things, I am thinking in qualitative terms. No
doubt every modern schoolboy knows many facts of which
Plato was unaware, and there is no harm in that, but rather
good, if good use is made of the knowledge. But the
knowledge itself docs not make the schoolboy any wiser than
Plato was. We have acquired material means far beyond our
capacity to use them wisely. These means look good to you,
partly becausc they imply power in the hands of those who
possess them; to the backward races, so called, they are known
almost only as powers of death-dealing.
You will probably cite advances in medical knowledge. It
would be strange indeed if a long period of concentration on
scarch for improvement in means of physical well being had
produced no useful results. Still there is much to be said, and
that is said by doctors themselves, as to the balancc of good in
all this. For example, as to the distinction of curativc from
preventive medicine. Take modern dentistry: wonderful, no
doubt; yet search has shown that primitive people, not living
on our kinds of soft foods and white bread have almost always
no need for dentists, And once again, in the matter of health
and disease, the so-called backward peoples are chiefly aware of
white men as bearers of diseasesmeasles, influenza, veneral
diseases, tuberculosis, etc. In the matter of tuberculosis, in
particular, missionaries have a very special responsibility, in
that their failure to distinguish nudity from depravity has been
the chief cause of the spread of this disease.
The late Dr John Lodge, one of the most highly educated and
cultivated Americans I have ever known, used to say to me:
From the Stone Age until now, quelle degringoladeY' Let me
also quote from Werfels Forty Days (1934):
But we dont want your reforms, your progress, your
business activity. We want to live in God, and to develop in
ourselves those powers which belong to Allah. Dont you
know that all that which you call activity, advancement, is of
the devil? Shall I prove it to you? You have made a few
superficial investigations into the essence of the chemical
elements. And what happens then?when you act from
your imperfect knowledge, you manufacture the poison
gases, with which you wage your currish, cowardly wars.
And is it any different with your flying machines? You will
only use them to bomb whole cities to the ground.
Meanwhile they only serve to nourish usurers and profit-
makers, and enable them to plunder the poor as fast as
possible. Your whole devilish restlessness shows us plainly
that there is no progressive activity not founded on
destruction and ruin. We would willingly have dispensed
with all your reforms and progress, all the blessings of your
scientific culture, to have been allowed to go on living in our
old poverty and reverence. . . . You tell us our government
is guilty of all this bloody injustice, but in truth, it is not our
government, but yours. It went to school with you.
The Rev Edwin W. Smith (African missionary), as President
of the Royal Anthropological Society, said in 1934:
Too often missionaries have regarded themselves as agents of
European civilization and have thought it part of their duty
to spread the use of English language, English clothing,
English musicthe whole gamut of our culture.
He quotes Charles Johnson of Zululand:
The central idea was to prize individuals off the mass of the
national life. . . . African Society has a religious basis
. . . can you expect the edifice to stand if the foundation is
cut away? Is not the administration justified in decreeing that
the Africans are not to be Christianized because thereby they
are denationalized?
You are doubtless right in saying that I have missed
something in my understanding of Christianity. I am sure I
have missed much in my understanding of other confessions,
also. Is it not inevitable that we should all have missed
something until we reach the end of the road?
Very sincerely,
PS: Since writing the above I happen to have received Erich
Meissncrs Germany in Peril, still another example of the now
abundant literature of indictment of what passes in modern
Europe and the modern world in general for civilization.
The author remarks:
If we say that European civilization, the ancient traditions of
Christendom, arc imperiled . . . the shortest way of stating
the case is this: during the last few centuries a vast majority of
Christian men have lost their homes in every sense of the
word. The number of those cast out into the wilderness of a
dehumanized society is steadily increasing. . . . The time
might come and be nearer than we think, when the ant-heap
of society, worked out to full perfection, deserves only one
verdict: unfit for men. . . . Beauty is a spiritual force.
Capitalism has exiled men to a world of extreme ugli
ness. . . . The industrial worker . . . as Eric Gill puts it, has
been reduced to a state of sub-human irresponsibility. . . .
There are two main weaknesses of organized natural
education. One is the intellectual inferiority which is the
result of compulsory education on a large scale . . . the result
is: the young people . . . do not know what knowledge
is . . . this explains the dangerous gullibility which prop
aganda exploits. . . . Education becomes a province of its
own, detached from life. Great philosophers have believed
. . . that a disintegrating society can be cured by making
education a well-built ark that floats on the waters of
destruction. . . . [But] education . . . reflects necessarily the
realities of the society of which it is nothing but a part. . . . It
is therefore wrong to attribute a function to education which
it cannot perform . . . compulsory education, whatever its
practical use may be, cannot be ranked among the civilizing
forces of the world. . . .
Roughly speaking, there are only two sets of combatants.
Those who say let us push ahead; everything will come right
in the end, and the others who say: Let us try to stop. We
seem to be on the wrong road. We may have to go back to find
the right road again. . . . The first set of fighters includes both
the capitalists and the communists. . . . The Catholic Church
has taken up her position in the opposite camp, hostile to those
fatalists*. . . . One cannot say that the . . . Church has been
very successful in this struggle. . . . But who would wish to
belittle this if the alternative is an increased intensity of
disintegration, veiled as progress? What is there, in fact, in your
progress, which you can possibly have the courage to offer to
the rest of the world, and even to wish to force upon it?
Very sincerely,
* Obviously, much has transpired since these remarks were written. The
Church has embraced so many aspects of the modern world that she is no
longer herself. And the institutionsave for a remnant here and thereto
which even non-Catholics looked as a bastion of sanity, is now perceived as
converging with a world in hastening decaythe world from which she
should offer the hope of salvation.
Mr Sidney L. Gulick lived in and wrote from Honolulu, Hawaii. He had
written a letter to Asia and the Americas in March, 1943, in which he
attempted to distinguish the work of missionaries from the devastating
effects of western economic expansion.
To MR SIDNEY L. GULICK
July 21, 1943
Dear Mr Gulick:
Many thanks for your letter of June 27. You ask why I stay in
the United States if I hold these views. 1remain here because
my work lies here. One can make oneself at home anywhere;
one can live ones own life; it is not compulsory to own a radio
or to read the magazines.
I have emphasized before that I am not contrasting West and
East as such, but modern anti-traditional, essentially irreligious
cultures with others. This point of view is one that is shared by
many Americans, who have spent all their lives here. 1have
lived more than 25 years in Europe and as long in America and
so it is rather ironical to hope that I may yet see more and more
of your better side; I think I am well aware of this side, though
it may be one that survives in spite of rather than because of
contemporary tendencies to stress the quantitative rather than
the qualitative aspects of life.
Incidentally, in reading your letter to Asia . . . as printed, I
note you speak of Sir Rabindranath. This is not good form, as
he repudiated the title many years ago, after the Amritsar
massacre.
It is of course, a truism to observe that every people and
culture has both good and bad aspects. One does not therefore
have to assume a latitudinarian and uncritical attitude to this or
the other set of conditions, however.
I wonder if you ever consider such books as Aldous Huxleys
Ends and Means or Gerald Heards Man the Master?
Very sincerely,
Mr Sidney L. Gulick, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Rabindranath Tagore, the well known Bengali writer.
The Amritsar massacre occurred in 1919, in the city of that name in the
Punjab. In a walled enclosure, Jalianwalabagh, a British general had his men
fire repeatedly into an unarmed crowd while armed soldiers blocked the only
exit. According to the official count, 379 people were killed and 1200
wounded and left on the scene unattended.
To MR SIDNEY L. GULICK
No day or month given, but the year was 1943
Dear Mr. Gulick:
Many thanks for your letter of August 25. It is quite true
that, like Christianity, Buddhism stresses that it is mans first
duty to work out his own salvation, and that the social
applications of his religion are more obvious in Hinduism.
Nevertheless, consider such a dictum as the Buddhas most
famous royal advocate, Asoka, [who] himself publically
repented of his conquests and recorded this [repudiation] in his
lithic Edicts. You say Buddhism repudiates the self. This is a
vague statement, if we do not specify which of our two selves
(duo sunt in homine, Aquinas, etc), the outer or the inner man, is
repudiated. The Buddha certainly never repudiated selfs
immortal Self and Leader; the self that he repudiates is the
one that Christ requires us to hate, if we would follow Him,
or again utterly deny (Math xvi, 24). This latter expression is
very forceful and certainly of more than ethical significance.
These dicta underlie, of course, Eckharts the soul must put
itself to death, and so forth.
Finally, it is not safe to take your opinions regarding other
religions from current translations, even those of scholars; you
must have read the original texts.*
Very Sincerely,
* The reader is referred to the comments of the Introduction apropos this
situation.
Mr Sidney L. Gulick, Honolulu, Hawaii.
To FATHER HENRICUS VAN STRAELEN, SVD
November 18, 1946
Dear Father van Straelen:
I admired your book, The Far East Must Be Understood, very
much, and now I have to thank you for the other.
I fully agree with you that the unifying of mankind in a
spiritual sense can only be brought about by religion; also, I
recognize how great a change is taking place in these times in
missionary methodsalthough much of the harm has been done.
But to identify religion with Christianity, I can only regard as
insane (and this strong word I mean); just as much so as it
would be for a Hindu to take up an anti-Christian position. I
would not bar the eastern ports to anyone having personal
religious experience; but, the missionary can no longer be
allowed to do good abroad, he can only be allowed to be good.
Incidentally, I thought some of the Chinese Vicar Apstolics
remarks (p 57), eg, China has given proof of a wholesomeness
that we seek in vain among older peoples, as arrogant as
anything that has been said by the most ignorant Europeans
who have themselves everything to learn from Turks and
Hindus about a wholesome attitude to sex.
Father Hcnricus van Straelen, SVD, Dutch missionary to Japan.
The Far East Must Be Understood, by Henricus van Straelen, London, 1945.
To F. W. BUCKLER
Date uncertain
Dear Professor Buckler:
Ive been reading your letter to Gulick and feel that I ought to
say that while 1was talking primarily about the proselytising
fury of the West, I would say the same regarding Christians as
such. I think in fact that a proselytising fury implies a state of
mind that would be disgraceful in anyone. Christians as such
should produce a Christian civilization and make that their
witness.
You would wish to change a religion without destroying a
culture. Because our culture has been secularized it is natural for
us here to think that such a thing is possible. But in a social
order such as you have in India you can no more separate
religion from culture than soul from body. There, the divorce
of a profane from the sacrcd hardly exists. Hinduism penetrates
everything: one might say that the languages themselves are
calculated to embody religious ideas, and so you could not
substitute a new religion without substituting a new language
(which could only be a basic or pidgin English). The same
applies to all the music and literature and every way of life. The
missionary is quite right, from his point of view, in opposing
and ignoring all these elements of the Indian culturehe must
do so, if he is not to be defeated by the whole situation. Add to
this, of course, that it is impossible for him not to be of his own
kind, and therefore impossible for him not to carry with him
the infection of modern life. The only large scale effect of
missionary activity in Asia, in other words, is not to convert,
but to secularize. You must resign yourself to the alternative: to
convert, you must destroy the culture, or if you do not destroy
the culture, then you cannot convert.
Sincerely,
Professor F. W. Buckler, department of church history, Graduate-School of
Theology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
Mr Sidney L. Gulick, as above.
To REV PROFESSOR H. H. ROWLEY
July 4, 1946
Dear Professor Rowley:
Very many thanks for your kind letter rc Religious
Basis. . . . Regarding missionaries, 1am sure you no more
than I would wish to engage in any long controversy, but I
should like to say a few words. To begin with, one must
distinguish preaching from proselytisingthe latter, indeed,
leads only too easily to such indecent gloatings over real or
imagined results, as can be observed in a recent article in the
Journal of Religion. Secondly, granting the right to prcach, I take
the strongest stand against the bringing of foreign money to
found educational institutions to be used as an indirect method
of proselytising; this is nothing but a sort of bribery (or
inverted simony); and under current conditions (Indian poverty
and the economic value of an English education) this kind of
bribery has no doubt been more effective than the rice that
gives rise to the expression ricc-Christian. However impor
tant the end may seem to be, one cannot respect those who
employ underhand methods to gain it; the economic tempta
tion is one that, indeed, few Indian parents can afford to resist;
and while one admires those who can resist, one can only
marvel at the missionary who is willing to get at the children
by bribing the parent.
Foreign educators should be called in only by Indians
themselves, and only to give instruction in special subjects. It is
quite true that whatever Indian Christianity there will be
should be an Indian Christianity. But the idea that Indian
cultural values can be preserved amongst proselytes is almost
entirely a fantasy. In the first place, in a traditional order like
the Indian it is impossible to draw any dividing line between
religion and culture; in other words, there hardly exists such a
thing as a profane culture there. Secondly, only the smallest
fraction of foreign teachers ever does, or even can acquire a real
grasp of or assimilate Indian (or Chinese) values or other alien
values in such a vital way as to be able to communicate them; to
do that would demand the giving up of as much of ones own
life to those values as has been given to those in which one was
bred (values, indeed, arc only really understood to the extent
that one lives by them). Even if a missionary wished to
preserve Indian values, has he the patience to spend, say, 15
years in India as a student, during which time he might absorb
them, and during which time he would have to live as Indians
live if he wants to understand their life, before he opens his
mouth to preach? The question answers itself; and besides,
patience apart, he senses a real danger, that with real under
standing, he might no longer wish to change anything; he
might come to desire only to be good, and to question the
possibility of doing good in any other way.
I am quite sure and aware that there are some exceptional
missionaries, and even that the general intention of missions is
not quite as blind as it was once; still the general effect is
inevitably destructive and only to a very limited extent
palliative of the other aspects of the essentially materialistic
impact of modern Western culture. Granted, the missionary is
not himself awarely a materialist; but brought up as he is in an
atmosphere of nominalism, skepticism, and in a world entirely
dominated by economics, he is the bearer of materialistic
values, just as a man may be a carrier of typhoid though he does
not know it. He takes for granted the normality of the
separation of things sacred and profane.
In the same way conversion is not the acceptance of a new
dogma, but the taking of a new point of view, and literally a
turning around of the vision from the phenomenal shadows
to the light that is their first cause; this sunwise turn is a
turning and standing up to face the sun (Hesiods phrase in
another context, Works, 727) and a heliotropy that is best
described in Platos account of the emergence from the Cave
(Republic 514 f). This turning round from the world of
becoming until the soul is able to endure the contemplation of
essence . . . the turning round of the souls vision to the region
where abides the most blessed part of reality, a turning that he
compares to the revolution of a stage setting (Republic 518 C;
526 E, cf also 532 A and B; 540!; Phaedo 83 B; Symposium 219;
Philebus 61 E, etc); Ruysbroecks instaerne, (in-staring), is
precisely that inverted vision (avrtta-caksus) with which the
contemplative, seeking the immortal, secs the immanent solar
Spirit within him (Katha Upanishad IV, 1). But, as Eckhart says
(Evans trans, Vol II, p 137): anyone who turns within before
his sight is clcarcd will be repelled, for this light blinds weak
eyes, and this is why prisoners of the Cave strive to kill
whoever would lead them out of it (Republic 517 A); Professor
Shoreys Hardheadcd distaste for the unction or seeming
mysticism of Platos language (Locb Library Republic 1, 135,
note d; cf 146, note d) is a rancour that is contemptuous of
immortality, and will not let us recognize what is divine in us
(Hermes Trismegistus, Asclepius, 1.12, b); is an exhibition of
this murderous temper, for to pretend that Plato was a
humanist is indeed to slay him. For what does Plato mean by
truth and by philosophy? Not such knowledge as has a
beginning . . . (Phaedrus 247 E, cf Philebus 58 A and Laws
644, etc). Human wisdom is of little or no worth (Apology 23
A), and only God is worthy of our most serious attention (Laws
803 C), the philosopher is a practitioner of the Ars moriendi
(Phaedo 61, 64, 67), the Bacchoi arc the true philosophers
(Phaedo 69 C and D); there is much that cannot be demons
trated, for it docs not at all admit of verbal expression like
other studies, but as the result of much participation in the
thing itself and living with it, it is suddenly brought to birth in
the soul, like as a light that is kindled by a leaping spark
(Epistle VII, 341 C); and he continues, even so far as the nature
of reality can be stated publicly, this would be unnecessary for
the few who need but little teaching, and misleading to the
many who would only despise what they could not understand
(cf Theatetus 155 Etake care that none of the uninitiated
overhear). There is nothing here to correspond to what a
modern rationalist and nominalist understands by philoso
phy . . . .
Sinccrcly,
Rev Professor H. H. Rowley, D. D, Fallowfield, Manchester, England; also
of the department of Semitic languages, University College of North Wales,
Bangor.
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Dear M:
I would agree with you that even the highest cultural
valuesconsidered as the rich mans great possessionsmay
be sacrificed when it becomes a matter of Worth that transcends
all values. What I revolt at is the destruction of values that
results when one aspect of this Worth is set up as its only true
aspect. 1dont think anyone can altogether ignore the position
of very many deeply religious persons who would hold with,
for example, Jung who says to flatter oneself that Christianity
is the only truth, the white Christ the only redeemer, is
insanity. I would take this last word quite literally, or possibly
substitute for it the word paranoia.
You mention Africa. I myself do not know (do you know, or
only suppose?) whether the African spiritual basis of life is
equally good with that of Hinduism or not; I have not lived
the Bantu life for 15 years. -In an analagous case, the well
known American anthropologist Ashely Montagu has said that
we arc spiritually, and as human beings, not the equal of the
average Australian aboriginal, or the average Eskimowe are
very definitely their inferiors (and has expressed this view to
me even more strongly in correspondence)and in this
connection, the criterion by their fruits . . . might well
apply. Professor Northrop (in The Meeting of East and West, p
22), remarks that
It takes ideals and religion to enter into the imaginations and
emotions of all and lay waste their very souls. Not until
mans cherished beliefs are captured can his culture be
destroyed. This evil aspect of our own highest moral ideas
and religious values has been overlooked; in our blindness to
ideals and values other than our own we see only the new
effects which our own provincial goods create and not the
equally high value of the old culture which their coming has
destroyed. Only a merging of civilizations which proceeds
from the knowledge and appreciation- of the diverse ideals
and values of all parties to the undertaking, can escape evils
so terrible and extreme as those wrought by the Christian
religion in Mexico.
As for Africa, again [Jung writes]:
The stamping out of polygamy by the missions has
developed prostitution in Africa to such an extent that in
Uganda alone, twenty thousand pounds yearly are expended
on anti-venereal measures, and furthermore the campaign
has had the worst possible moral cousequences. The good
European pays missionaries for these results.
(Italics mine). Every anthropologist knows that this and similar
statements are true.
Indeed, the missionary must be paidand all his apparatus
must be paid for, if he is not merely to preach, but also to
proselytise, and to make propaganda for specifically modern
Western, but really provincial patterns of morality. I say
provincial, because there are no patterns of conduct that can be
callcd universal; only principles arc universal. It is becausc the
missionary must be paid that he must misinterpret the peoples
whose guest he has been or will be, if he is to persuade the pious
American to shell out. To give such an account of India as can
be found, for example, in the writings of Sir George Birdwood
or Sister Nivedita would hardly open up purse strings; for there
must be stories of infanticide, Juggernaut and people like
Katherine Mayo.
To sum up, whatever good missions have done, I am very
sure the evil outweighs it. One last point: a preacher can be a
gentleman. Can a proselytiser? This is a world in which we
have to learn to respect one another. We must not assume that
God has only been really good to one chosen people.
With kindest regards,
Recipient not identified.
M. F. Ashley Montagu, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland,
USA; well known anthropologist.
Professor F. S. C. Northrop, department of philosophy, Yale University,
New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Sir George Birdwood, KCIE, CSI, MD. For his bibliography, see his book
Sua, London, 1915.
Sister Nivedita (Margaret E. Noble), a convert to Hinduism* who wrote
The Web of Indian Life, London, 1904.
Katherine Mayo, an American who wrote Mother India, a book which gave
great offense to Indians.
*It should be noted that in the view of the orthodox, entry into Hinduism is
only via birth into one of the traditional castes. AKC elsewhere posits the
one theoretical exceptionthat of the mteccha (barbarian or non-Hindu) who
becomes a santiyasin, an utter renunciant.
To WALTER SHEWRING
Date uncertain
Dear Walter Shewring:
The following is by way of answer to other matters raised in
your letter. 1have not used Senart very much, but should call
his translation good, though as in translating Plato, I hold that
no one whose mentality is nominalist can really know the
content of realistic texts. I like Teapes Secret Lore of India
very well, though the versions are not literal, they are very
understanding. Of the Gita, Edwin Arnold is good, but I
generally work most with the Bhagavan Das and Besant
version (with word for word analysis) published by the
Theosophical Society. I dont need to tell you that the greatest
scholars often betray their texts; for example, in the Laws of
Mann 2.201, Buhler renders that the man who blames his
teacher will become a donkey in his next life; actually, the text
has becomes {present tense), and nothing whatever about the
next life! I have often thought of translating the Gita, and
many other texts, but that is a very great task, for which
perhaps Im hardly ready, and anyhow, I havent so far been
able to avoid the work of the exegesis of special problems. I
was very pleased that you could approve of the Knots; I have
thought of that article as representative of what I am trying to
do; yet it is only a little part of what should be a whole book on
Atman, or even on the Sutratman alone.
About tolerance: I did not expect, of course, your full
agreement. I would like to write a volume of Extrinsic and
probable proofs of the truth of Christianity. I regard the
notion of a conversion from one form of belief to another as
analagous to change from one monastic order to another;
generally speaking, undesirable, but not forbidden, and
appropriate in individual cases (eg, Marco Pallis*). Hinduism,
like Judaism, is a non-proselytising religion. The Jew will say,
I cannot make you to have been bom of Abraham, but
whatever you find true and good in my forms you can apply to
your own. Buddhism, on the other hand, is proselytising in
the same sense as Philo; a making more easily available what is
universal apart from the special laws by which the particular
traditions are practiced. In Islam, it is fundamental that the
teachings of all the Prophets are of equal authority, but there is
the rather impressive argument that one ought to follow most
closely the teachings of the Prophet of the Age, in this case,
Muhammed. However, I would not distinguish time and place
from this point of view, and would interpret this also to mean
that the normal course is to follow the Prophet of ones own
people, whose teachings are enunciated in the common terms
of their own experience. One can regard the Eternal Avatara as
unique, but this does not mean that one must think of his
descent as having been a unique event.
Of course, apart from all this, I have no doubt we are fully
agreed as to all the reservations that should be imposed as a
matter of duty to whoever seeks to proselytise; I am referring
to the obligation to know and utilise the culture of the people to
whom one speaks. This is recognized at least by some Jesuit
missionaries who in China, I understand, arc required to have
earned their living in a Chinese environment and to have
followed a Chinese trade, before they are allowed to preach.
The average Protestant missionary is an ignoramus, and docs
not even know enough to bring to such peoples as the Hindus
what would most attract and interest them in Christianity.
Further: to the point that to be a professing Christian is not
indispensable for salvation may be added the fact that it is
recognized that the non-Christians may have received the
baptism of the Spirit, although not that of the waterand if I
understand the first chapter of John rightly, the baptism of the
Spirit is superior.
Myths common to India and Greecenotably the dragon-
slaying (HerculesMinurtaIndra) as now generally reeog-
nized (there is a big literature on the subject). Then, the whole
conception of the Janua Coeli, of which the doors are the
Symplegades, ie, enantiai, dvandvau, contraries: this is Indian,
Greek, European folklore; and above all, aboriginal American,
too!
Next, I would think of the whole concept of the Water of
Life (of which the sourcc lies beyond the aforesaid contraries, in
the divine darkness), Indian, Persian, Sumarian, Greek, Norse
and the whole concept of the Eucharist and transubstantian
connected therewith. Then also, of course, many things which
are not so much myths as doctrines, eg, duo sunt itt homine
(Vedic, Platonic, Christian). Also the concept of the ideal
world, that of the world Picture or speculum aeternum. I
understand Huxley is doing an anthology, but I very much
doubt that he is in a position to get at the fundamentals,
although with all their great limitations I think both he and
Heard arc not without some virtue. Huxley, however, is rather
sentimental, and cannot accept that darker side of God which
Behmen, perhaps, understood better than most.
I have lately been reading with great interest Scholems Major
Trends in Jewish Mysticism where certain Hebrew-Indian para
llels are very striking, eg, Abulafias Yoga, the concept of Mi
(What?) equivalent to the Sanskrit Kha (What?) as an
essential name of God; the concept of transmigration (qilul =
Ar, tanasuh)all transmigrations are in the last resort only the
migrations of the one soul whose exile atones for its fall; that
every art of man should be directed to the restoration of all the
scattered lights (cf Bodhisattva concept); in the beginning,
our in principio, arche, regarded as a point and identified with
the Fons vitae.
Regarding Erics letters, if you have in mind some archive in
which all would be gathered together, keep mine, otherwise
return them. I passed on your message to Graham Carey and
hope he will not delay to respond.
With kindest regards,
*Who bccamc Buddhist following upon his contacts with and deep
penetration of the Mahayana in its Tibetan form.
Walter Shewring, identified on p 23.
The reference in the first paragraph is to translations of the Upanishads;
W. M. Teape, The Secret Lore of India, Cambridge, England, 1932.
'Svayamatrnna: Janua Coeli', in Zalmoxis, II, Paris, 1939.
Symplegades, in Studies and Essays in the History of Science in Homage to
George Sarton on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, edited by M. F. Ashley
Montagu, New York, 1947.
Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Jerusalem, 1941.
Letters of Eric Gill, edited by Walter Shewring, New York, 1948.
4Klta and Other Words Denoting Zero in Connection with the Metaphysics
of Space, AKC, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, VII,
1934.
To ERIC GILL
June 14, 1934
My dear Gill:
I am very grateful to you for your kind letter, and delighted
by your appreciation. After all, there is nothing of my own in
the book except the work of putting things together, so there is
no reason why I should not myself think it important as regards
its matter. I have definitely come to a point at which I realise
that ones own opinions or views so far as they are peculiar or
rebellious arc merely accidents of ones individuality and are
not properly to be regarded as a basis for comprehension or as a
guide to conduct. I am from my point of view entirely at one
with you in the matter of religion, ie, as regards essentials, the
only important divergence being that for me the one great
tradition (or revelation) has had many developments, none of
which can claim absolute perfection of (dogmatic) expression
or absolute authority. That is, for me, the solar herothe
Supernal Sunis always the same Person, whether by name
Agni, Buddha, Jesus, Jason, Sigurd, Hercules, Horus, etc. On
the whole I can go further in by means of the Indian Tradition
than any other, but it can hardly be doubted that my natural
growth, had 1been entirely a product of Europe and known no
other tradition, would ere now have made me a Roman
[Catholic].
I am only too pleased you quote The artist is not a special
kind of man etc It will interest you that only yesterday I had a
few words with one of the Harvard professors in the Fine Arts
Department there and he said he was constantly citing these
very words in his lectures. Such things, and the review in the
Times, show at least that there does not prevail an entirely contra
point of view and that we have friends in the world. I look
forward to your new book very much and I am very sure that it
will, as all your writings do, very wisely express from the
practical point of view, the matter. You will understand of
course that it is a matter of definite policy on my part to work
within the academic and even the pedantic sphere; that is
analagous to the idea of the reform of a school of thought from
within, instead of an attack from without . . . .
I remain ever cordially,
PS: I send this to England in case you are back from
Jerusalem. I cannot help feeling that my written response to the
caritas of your appreciation is inadequate, but I am very much
sensible to your generous expressions!
Eric Gill, Ditchling, Sussex, England. See Introduction. He had written to
AKC thanking him for The Transformation of Nature in Art (sec Bibliogra
phy), saying I am really overwhelmed by it . . . . It seems to me splendid,
magnificent, marvellous and altogether excellent . . . .
The quotation referred to in the letter reads in full: The artist is not a special
kind of man, but every man should be a special kind of artist (AKC). Art
and a Changing Civilization, London, 1934.
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREY-ELWES
March 3, 1947
Dear Father Carey-Elwes, O.S.B.
Many thanks for your very kind letter of Feb 13. I am
interested to see that you arc at Ampleforth College, and so a
colleague of Walter Shewring with whom I often exchange
correspondence. My little Note was intended only to
support your article in The Life of the Spirit.
About Christianity and other religions or, as I should
prefer to say, other forms of religion (avoiding the plural)
my position can be summed up in the proposition Una veritas in
uariis signis varie resplendent and that this stands ad majorem
gloriam Dei. I think, therefore, of their admirable variety as
something very pleasing to Him, who must be very well aware
that nothing can be known but according to the mode of the
knower.
Therefore, 1cannot think of any one form of religion as a
preparation for another. Such a view would seem to me
analagous to the error of thinking one style of art is a
preparation for some higher development succeeding it. 1
rather agree with the Moslem view according to which all the
major prophets from Adam to Muhammed are of equal rank,
but each is the prophet of his age and place; and certainly with
St Augustines splendid statement about the true religion that
the ancients always had and that only came to be callcd
Christianity after the temporal birth of Christ (of course I
know that he withdrew this statement, but as I think, in this
case his first thoughts were the best).
In all my work I endeavour never to discuss any particular
doctrine without citing for it authority from Christian, Islamic,
Hindu, and often other sources; and I emphasize that there is
nothing peculiar to, for example, Hinduism and Buddhism
except what I call their local color. So, as I also often express
it, I am on your side, even if you are not wholly on mine.
I should be far from denying that Christ is the Heir of All
Things. It is, however, for me a matter of Who is Christ?;
whether, for example, Socrates was not also Christ. A
Roman Catholic friend of mine has spoken of Ramakrishna as
an alter Christus; and this I parallel with the words of the Lama
Wangyal (to Marco Pallis, who had been speaking of Christ): I
see that He was a very Buddha. Amongst themselves, I cannot
rank the diverse manifestations of the Eternal Avatar; I think
of Him as one and the same in all. There is a great spiritual
delight in feeling that one does not have to compare ones own
form of religion with others in terms of major and minor. This
of coursc, is not a latitudinarianism, for I distinguish
orthodoxy from heresy; nor is it syncretism, because
for all their fundamental likeness, I do not think that forms of
religion can be advantageously mixed.
Very sincerely,
Father Columba Carey-Elwps, O.S.B., taught at Ampleforth College in
England and was a contributor to Blackfriars, a monthly review edited by the
English Dominicans, Oxford, England. Blackfriars also published The Life of
the Spirit as a separate review devoted to the theology and practice of
prayer.
The Note which occasioned this letter is given below.
To CONRAD PEPLER, OP
January 27, 1947
Dear Dr Pcplcr:
I dont know if you would like to publish this little note in
The Life of the Spirit. You will see, of course, that 1am not
arguing that the Christian writers derived their wording from
Gnostic or Hermetic sources, but that (as I carefully word it),
the existence of these contemporary ways of thinking would
have facilitated the acceptation of Fr Carey-Elwes equation in
peoples minds.
Very sinccrcly,
Note on The Son of Man
1think Fr Carey-Elwes is perfectly right in equating The
Son of Man (or perhaps better, of the Man) with the Son
of God. I am writing now only to point out that while this
can be deduced as Fr Carey-Elwes docs from Old and New
Testament texts, the possibility of this meaning having been
so understood by Christian writers is increased by the fact
that this was explicitly a contemporary Gnostic position.
Thus Irenacus I, 6, 3, describing Valcntinian Gnosticism
says: There arc yet others amongst them who declare that
the Forefathers of the Wholes, the Fore-Source, and the
Primal-unknowable One is called man. And that this is the
great and abstract Mystery, namely, that the Power which is
above all others and contains the Wholes in his embrace, is
termed Man. Epiphanous (Panar. 31, 5) similarly speaks of
the Father of Truth as having been called by the mystical
name ofman. Cf also Hermetica I. 12 where the Father of
all gave birth to the Man, like unto Himself. . . bearing the
image of his Father, and as was like to be, God delighted in
the Man, -whose form was His (Gods own; bearing in mind
the traditional view according to which in all generations the
father himself is reborn in the son. It will be seen that these
statements imply that there must have been also in the Father
a Manlike nature.
Father Conrad Pcplcr, OP, was editor of The Life of the Spirit.
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREY-ELWES, OSB
Dear Father Carcy-Elwes:
I am not quite sure if I ought to address you as Father. In
any ease I thank you for your very kind letter of March 9,
which I am sorry I had to neglect so long. I look at the different
religions as modes of knowing God (in terms of the
affirmative theology) but think each makes slightly different
groups of affirmations for most of which equivalents can be
traced in the different traditions (it is a favorite task on my part
to do this): but I am not quite sure that they can be combined in
any syncretic statement. On the other hand, when we consider
the negative theology, in which, eg, as Cusa says, God is
only infinite, and as such neither Father, nor Son, nor Holy
Ghost, then we find an absolutely common ground, trans
cending all the dogmas and formulae, however valuable these
arc (cf Maitri Upanishad IV. 5, 6 which I am sure Shcwring will
have, or you can get from a library, in Humes The Thirteen
Principal Upanishadsnot a very good bookespecially as
regards the Introductionbut adequate for the present point,
viz, contrast of the + and theologies). Hence acceptance of
the truth of all religions is comparatively rare from the
standpoint of dogmatic theology, but the rule in mystical
literature (notably Islamic Sufism). Practically all that a
Christain holds about Christ is acceptable from a Hindu point
of view; . . . from the point of view of Clement of Alexan
dria . . . the Eternal Avatara . . . has appeared again and again
in the world in the persons of the successions of prophets
whose essence is really one and the same. Besides which there
arc what we should call partial avataras. Of course, by
whatever name one is accustomed to love God, one is humanly
inclined to regard as the Eternal Avatarthe only Son of
Godprecisely thus, for example, the Vaishnava thinks of
Krishna. But the really important thing is His presence in us:
the bringing to birth of ChristAgniKrishnawithin you
until one can say with St Paul, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives
in memaking Him what we should call a jivan-mukta,
released in this life, and making him in fact (if we take the
word quite literally, as 1am fully prepared to do) an alter
Christus. In other words, one who being self-naughted has
fulfilled the philosophers task of practising dying all his life
(Plato), one who has fulfilled the injunction Die before ye
die, attributed to MuhammCd, and stated by Angelus Silesius
in the words Stib ehe du stirbat. I believe that is the great work to
which we are all alike called. That Christs religion is not only
doctrinal but factual has many parallels: for example, it is said
of Buddha emphatically that as he says, even so he does
and this is one of the explanations of the epithet Tathagata.
(Probably tatha and agata, who reached the truthTruth is
in fact his name, as it had been that of his Vedic antecedent
Agni, and was later of Brahma and finally of the Sikh God.)
The values of Christianity cannot be overestimated, but that
does not assert its universality as a necessary corollary. It is at
least for me, the essence and not the mode of religion that is
truly universal and immutable. So there is no opposition to
Christianity from a Hindu point of view, but only to certain
activities of Christians, notably as evangelists. This last
opposition is absolutely inevitable because in the traditional
civilizations religion and culture arc inseparably combined, and
the missionary is therefore always bound to seek to destroy
existing cultures (this may sound exaggerated, but the necessity
is apparent and I could cite authoritative sources for the fact.)
Now the fact that a given activity in which one seeks to make
another person one of us necessarily arouses opposition in
the very best and most devout hearts already casts suspicion on
the activity itself. In one sense or another it means war. And it
is such a pity because it would be so much easier to cooperate. I
hate to have to waste my time re the activities of missionaries.
Id much rather be engaged on exegesis, whether Christian or
Hindu; only, I cannot expect you to agree with all this but have
to say that I regard as the two greatest weaknessesand
dangersof Christianity, its claim to absolute superiority, and
its dependence upon a supposed historical fact. Nevertheless, as I
have said before, even if you are not with us, we are with you.
Yes, I believe in the efficacy of prayer, but am not much
practised in it, except in so far as I fully hold that labore est orare
and do regard my work as a vocation. You have the advantage
over me in that you are living a kind of life that has a formal
religious basis and background. We look forward to benefiting
by something of that kind when we return to India. So I can
utter a prayer for you, but only in the simplest and most
informal manner, while your prayer for me may be more
correct, so to speak.
Very sinccrcly,
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREY-ELWES, OSB
June 14, 1947
Dear Carey-Elwes:
Many thanks for your letter. I have asked Shcwring to lend
you . . . My Brothers Keeper. As-for jumping out of ones skin
(or as Americans say, out of ones pajamas) 1am afraid the
East, though still far less extrovertedless turned inside
outthan the West, is doing its best to jump, too. This means
that East and West have a common problem. I do not doubt
that you arc right in saying that in the West order survives in the
life of such orders as yours, nevertheless I find even Jesuits
infccted by disorder and urging India to progress by secular
means onlyic, yielding to Utopianism, (Laus Deo!).
I recommend very high Bharatan Kumarappas Capitalism,
Socialism or Villagism? (Madras, 1944); you will see what I mean
when you have read it; it is in the deepest sense instructive, and
constructive. On the other hand, how many so callcd re
forms are deforms!
Another very fine book, of a different kind, is H. Zimmers
Der Weg sum Selbst (Rascher Verlag, Zurich) about Sri Ramana
Maharshiprobably the greatest living Indian teacher, and
[proponent of] the great question . . . Who am I?
With kindest regards,
Sri Ramana Maharshi, previously identified; his collcctcd works have
appeared in both English and French versions.
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREY-ELWES, OSB
July 25, 1947
Dear Brother Columba:
Ifl may assume so to write,I will try to answer more fully
later, but in the meantime I do want to say right away that I do
most assuredly believe in revelation past, present, and future,
and beginning, of course, with the Invisible things of Him,
known by the things which are made. And secondly that,
most emphatically I do not agree that myths arc naturalistic; I
leave all that kind of nonsense to people like Sir J. G. Frazer and
Lcvy-Bruhl; see the sentence underlined in the Note 7 of the
enclosed. Also that you underestimate the place of Love in
Hinduism and Buddhism (of which very few Christian apolog
ists have any firsthand knowledge). How often does anyone
cite the Buddhas words spoken to a disciple when both were
visiting a sick man: Whoever would nurse me, let him nurse
the sick? One of the most strongly emphasized Buddhist
exercises is that of the deliberate and conscious projection of
love and sympathy towards all living beings in every quarter of
the universe (on this brahma-vihara sec briefly in my Figures of
Speech . . . , pp. 14, 7-8). Regarding Christ: he is not for me
merely this man Jesus, presumably historical, but one of the
manifestations of the Eternal Avatara whoto quote Cle
ment of Alexandriahas changed his forms and names from
the beginning of the world, and so reappeared again and again
in the world; and one of whose names is Krishna who, to cite
the Bhagavad Gita, says of himself: For the deliverance of men
of right intent, the confusion of evil-doers, and for the
confirmation of the Eternal Law, I take birth in age after age.
But I do not believe in a revelation uniquely Christian, but
rather with St Thomas (II Sent dist 28 q 1, a 4 and 5) that God
has also inspired the peoples of barbarous nations with the
knowledge that is necessary to salvation. As for parallels, my
fundamental interest is not just literary or historical, but in
doctrinal equivalences; that these are so often expressed in
almost identical idioms pertains to the nature of the common
universe of discourse that transcends the Babel of separated
languages.
With kindest regards,
PS: When I speak of doctrinal parallels I mean such things as:
Hoc nomen, qui est, est maxime propritun nomen Dei (St Thomas
Aquinas, Sum Theol, I, 13, 11 [This name, He Who Is, is most
properly applied to God.])He is, how else might that be
apprehended? He should be apprehended as He is (Katha
Upanishad 6.12, 13)In Him that is (Satapatha Brahmana
2.3.2.1). Parallels of this exactitude arc innumerable and I do
not see how you can maintain that they arc not true parallels.
Sir James G. Frazer, well known collator of mythological materials.
Lucicn Lcvy-Bruhl, author of Primitives and the Supernatural, London, 1936,
etc. The article with Note 7 is not identified.
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREY-ELWES, OSB
August 18, 1947
Dear Father Carey-Elwes:
I do thank you for your birthday letter of the 13th inst. On
the question, when and to whom God has revealed Himself
most fully, or to all according to their respective capacity, we
shall have to differ, but for the rest I am in fullest sympathy. As
to how I regard my life, I would not use the word illusion,
but would describe my personal temporal, and mutable
existence (ex eo sistens, qui est [standing forth, appearing from
Him Who IsEditor]) as phenomenal, using this word
deliberately having in view that a phenomenon must, by the
logic of the word itself, be a manifestation of something other
than the mere appearance itself: and in this case, as I believe, of
my real being, in eo sistens, qui est [standing fast in Him Who
IsEditor]. In general, in Oriental philosophies, human birth
is regarded as a great opportunitythe opportunity to become
what we are. So that one never wishes one had never been born,
but only to be born again, once and for all, never more to be
subject to the conditions of mutability-mortality that are
inseparable from being bom into any form of temporal
existence.
For the rest, I can only say that I am very sure that your God
and my God arc one and the same God whom, as Philo said,
all peoples acknowledge.
With all best wishes,
Very sinccrcly,
PS: Did I ever tell you that I know two brothers, Europeans,
both men of prayer, one a Trappist monk, the other a leading
Moslem, and neither has any wish to convert the other?
To BERNARD KELLY
November 26, 1945
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Regarding Extra Ecclesiam . . ., 1have before me a letter
from the Secretary of the Archbishop of Boston (R C), in
which he says that his formula is of course, one of the most
knotty problems in all theology.
Also in an article on the subjcct byj. C. Fenton in the American
Ecclesiastical Review, CX, April 1944 (also from the R C point
of view). The article is much too long to quote but it is stated at
one point that to be saved one must belong to the Church
formally or to the soul of the Church, which is the invisible
and spiritual society composed exclusively of those who have
the virtue of charity. No such society, however, exists on
earth. This last statement seems to me to beg the whole
question with which we arc concerned. Also, every man who
has charity, every man in the state of grace, every man who is
saved, is necessarily one who is, or who intends to become a
member of the Roman Catholic Church. This seems to me
contrary to the commandment Judge not. I believe the
Christian has no right to ask whether anyone is or is not in a
state of grace. (St Joans answer to the question was, If not, I
pray God that I may be, and if I am, I pray God keep me so).
There is also the expression baptism of the Spirit which, I
understand docs not necessarily apply only to members of the
Church who, as such, have rcccived also the baptism with
Water. Arc there specific limitations attached to the notion of
baptism by the Spirit? On the face of it, one would presume
that such a baptism was of almost infinite value and involved a
potentiality for salvation.
If it be said that to comc to Jesus Christ is a prerequisite for
salvation, then the question before us takes this form: arc we
certain that Jesus is the only name of the Son of God? (here I
do not say Jesus Christ bccausc Christ is an epithet,
anointed and = Vcdic ghrta as applied to Agni, and such an
epithet is a recognition of royalty rather than of essence.) Agni,
the High Priest, is also Prajapatis Son, and would not Prajapati
be a good name for Him exguo omins paternitas. . .nominatur (at
a ccrtain stage of the ritual, the Sacrificers say: We have
become the children of Prajapati).
It is quite likely you will not think it ncccssary or desirable to
raise the ultimate question of extra ecclesiam. . . in the present
and introductory Symposium, in which matters of full agree
ment are to be first considered. In any case, these arc ways in
which I have tried to consider the matter. Everything depends
finally on the interpretation of Ecclesia and of the Son of
God
Very sinccrcly,
Bernard Kelly, identified on pp 20-1, Windsor, England.
Fenton, J. C., author of 'Nulla salus extra Ecclesiam, American Ecclesiastical
Review, CX, April 1944.
To FATHER JOHN WRIGHT
January 15, 1944
Dear Father Wright:
Miss Maginnis has kindly shown me your letter, and I read
Dr Fentons article with much interest. I may say first that
while I do not lccturc on Scholastic theology, I do read Latin
and Greek as well as Sanskrit, and I think I do have sufficient
theological background to sec the problem in its general
context. The sense in which I am interested in the problem, you
will gather from the enclosed paper. I would like to have Dr
Fentons address (I expect Catholic University of America), as I
would like to ask him for a copy of the reprint. I probably
believe in the greater part of Christian doctrine more really than
many unthinking Christians do. What I am after. is to
discover just whether and how far the proposition Extra
ecclesiam nulla salus stands in the way of such a synthetic view of
religions as 1have discussed. For me, this becomes a matter of
the essential meaning of ecclesia and of Catholic, and indeed,
of orthodoxy; I cannot restrict any of these concepts to that
of the Roman Catholic Church. It seems to me that when Christ
speaks of having come to call, not the just, but sinners (Matt 9,
13) that this implies the existence then (and if so, why not
now?) of a spiritual society of persons having the virtue of
charity and whose salvation would not depend upon their
particular acceptance of his own teaching. You arc quite right,
of course, in saying that the problem has a context, but in case
you should be kind enough to reply, I would say, let us take it
for granted that we arc in agreement about such matters as
Grace, Providence and Free Will, and that there is an
ascertainable Truth.
Very sincerely,
Father John Wright, secretary to the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal
Cushing, and later to become himself a Cardinal and member of the Curia.
Alice H Maginnis, Davision of Museum Extension, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, where Dr Coomaraswamy worked for the most productive period
of his life, 1917-1947.
To DONA LUISA COOMARASWAMY
1935
Darling:
. . . I have been having some correspondence with Gill in
which I argued against his distinction of Christianity from
Hinduism, one which as a Catholic he has always been careful
to make. Now I am really touched when he writes I know
youre right and Ive been ashamed for years at the superficiality
and cheapness of my attempt to state the differences between
Christians and Hindus. Whatever you feel about Gills work
or writing, I do think it takes a real quality in a man to
confess in that manner. . . .
AKC
Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy, wife of AKC, in India at that time on a study
mission. Eric Gill, Ditchling, Sussex, England.
To WALTER SHEWRING
March 30, 1936
Dear Professor Shcwring:
Many thanks for your very kind letters, and the Golden
Epistle which I read with pleasure and profit. It will probably be
at least 3 years before I get to putting together a book on
Medieval Aesthetic (by the way, in the meantime I find that
Integritas is more nearly precision or correctness than
Unity). I shall send you the other articles as they appear in
the Art Bulletin so that you will have plenty of time to annotate
them. If you have time to do this for the first article in the
course of a year from now that will be ample. I shall of course
acknowledge your help when the time comes.
As to nature and grace, I think the distinction is present in
Indian thought. Cf for example the discussion in Popes
Tiruvakakam (Oxford). In the older literature, too, we meet
with such expressions as those whom He chooses. Because
of the strongly metaphysical bent of Indian thought, however,
the emphasis is often more on necessitas infallibilitatis than on
Graceask and ye shall receive, with the idea that God cannot
but respond to the prepared soul. I do not for the present expect
to find complete acceptance of other religions by Christians but
do cxpect, what there is even now no objection to, an
agreement with respect to individual doctrines, the enunciation
of which is common to Catholicism and Hinduism; for
example, that of the |one| essence and two natures, and apart
from the question of total acceptance, it seems to me that the
Christian fidei defensor would be well advised to make use of
such agreements as being what St Thomas calls extrinsic and
probable proofs, and have little doubt you would quite agree
with me thus far. Your poem on the picture is beautifully done.
I am happy to have introduced you to Guenon.
Very sincerely,
Walter Shewring, Ampleforth College, York, England
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt
The Golden Epistle, William of St Thierry, translated by Walter Shewring and
Justin McCann, London, 1930. Cistercian Publications, Spenser, Mas
sachusetts, published a later translation by Theodore Berkeley, OCSO, in
1971.
Tiruvafhakam, a collection of hymns of the South Indian Saivite saint
Manikkavasagar; these hymns, along with others of the Saiva Siddhanta are
noted for their intense devotional quality and exquisite expression.
To BERNARD KELLY
November 14, 1946
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Just a line to say, when you review Figures of Thought, by all
means correct my error about Transubstantiation. I dont need
to tell you that I dont mean to play with any idea. I have taken
quasi in Eckhart, etc, to refer always to symbols, which,
however adequate, give us only an inkling of the realities they
represent. Also, 1think there is still this much truth (and not an
unimportant truth) in what I was trying to say: viz, that we
ought really to transubstantiate, or what comes to the same,
sacrifice (make holy) everything, by taking it out of its sense
in our apprehensionor, if not, [we] arc living by bread
alone.
By the way, no one had ever remarked upon the repudiation
of copyright in Figures. . . and in Why Exhibit. . . . I shouldnt
mind if you do.
Im grateful for your review of Religious Basis. . also,
Grigsons of Figures. . . in Spectator, October 25.
I suppose you got either from me or otherwise, Al-Ghazalis
Mishkat (published by Royal Asiatic Soc, 1924); well worth
havingthe Introduction also good. On the whole, how much
better Islam has fared than Hinduism in translation and
comment by scholars! For example, Gairdner is very wary of
finding Pantheism in Islam. By the way, as regards the
criterion as annunciated on top of p 39, I usually think of
pantheism as asserting God = All, but not also more than all,
not also transcendent; doesnt that come to the same thing? At
the same time, another point: isnt there a sense in which we
must be pantheists; vis, this, that the finite cannot be outside the
infintc, for were it so, the infinite would be bounded by what is
external to it? But what is in God is God; and in this sense it
would appear correct to say that all things, taken out of their
sense, are God, for as ideas in the divine mind, they arc not
other than that mind. I think the right solution is fused but not
confused (Eckhart) and bhedabheda, distinction without
difference. Perhaps I said before, the best illustration is
afforded by her rayidentical with the centre when it goes
in and individual when it goes out. If there were confusion
absolute, the notion of the liberated as movers-at-will
(kamacarin) would surely be meaningless. So, as usual, the
correct position is one of a middle way between absolute
identity and complete distinction.
I know the danger of knowledge; and thats largely why
we mean to go to India ourselves; not that realisations are not
possible everywhere, but partly to make a more definite
transition; also; partly, of course for other reasons.
I might appropriate to myself the last two sentences of the
Mishkat. Shining surface: is not this like the mass of rays that
conceals the sun so that we do not see the wood for the trees?
Not so much a wall created by our blindness as created for us
by his manifestation itself; to be penetrated, of course.
However, the word shining is, I believe, only Edwin
Arnolds own; it is rather the depth and stillness of the open sea
that the texts themselves emphasize.
I note in The Life of the Spirit (Nov 1946): The incarna
tion. . . whose meaning is re-enacted in the life of every
aiter-Christus. In this sense I suppose St Paul (I live, yet not I
but Christ in me) is an aiter-Christus?
Affectionately,
PS: about choosing a tradition, I fully agree. It is rather the tradition
that should choosc us, cither by the circumstances of our birth or by a
subsequent personal illumination (cf St Pauls).
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England. Sec pp 20-1; Kelly was reviewing AKCs
Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought? (London, 1946) and had some
disagreement about AKCs discussion of Transubstantiation. Both this book
and AKCs Why Exhibit Works of Art? (London, 1943) bore the following
notice: No rights reserved. Quotations of reasonable length may be made
without written permission. The Religious Basis of the Forms of Indian Society;
Indian Culture and English Influence; East and West (all by AKC), New York,
1946.
Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche for Lights), al- Ghazzali; translated by W.H.T.
Gairdner, Royal Asiatic Society Monographs, Vol XIX, London, 1924;
Pakistani edition 1973.
The Life of the Spirit, a review of spirituality published by the Dominicans of
England, Oxford.
Pantheism, Indian and Neo-Platonic, AKC, Journal of Indian History, Vol
XVI, 1937; French translation in Etudes Traditionnelles, XLIII, Paris, 1938.
To BERNARD KELLY
December 29, 1946
Dear Bernard Kelly:
About the Eucharist as a type of a transubstantiation that
ought to be realised in secular life: Eckhart (Evans I, 408,
Pfeiffer 593), Were anyone as well prepared for outer food as
for the Sacrament, he would receive God (therein) as much as
in the Sacrament (itself). This is just what I wanted to say, I
think this is true.
About alter Christus, ibid p 592: By living the life of Christ
rather than my own, so I have Christ as me rather than
myself, and I am called Christ! rather than John or Jacob or
Ulrich; and if this befalls out of time, then I am transformed
into God.
About extra ecclesiam nulla salus: the Papal Bull Unigenitus
against Jansenism amongst other things declared that the
proposition Grace is not given outside the Church is untrue.
Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, 1929, says the Church
is the normal institute of grace, but the Grace of Christ is not
hindered from visiting particular men without the mediation of
the Church; and those who arc thus visited by his Grace in this
immediate way belong to the invisible Church (this is what I
mean when I sometimes talk of the reunion of the Churches
in the widest sense).
This material in the last two paragraphs above is taken from
Bevan, Christianity, Home University Library, pp 194, 5.
Bevan, however, on p 215 says Christianity is either the one
religion for mankind, or it is altogether nonsensewhich
seems to me to be a total non sequitur. The Lord knoweth who
are his (II Tim 2, 19); it is a presumption to think that we
know.
Kindest regards,
The following, part of another letter, was enclosed:
St Thomas, Lib II Sententiarum, dist 28. q.l. art 4: A man
may prepare himself by what is contained in natural reason for
receiving faith. Wherefore it is said that if anyone born in
barbarous nations doeth what lieth in him, God will reveal to
him that which is necessary to salvation, either by inspiration
or by sending him a teacher (here by inspiration shows that
St Thomas is not merely thinking of Christian missionaries,
but of direct illumination). In Summa Theol II-II.2.7 and 3, St
Thomas with reference to the salvation of the Sibyls allows that
some persons may have been saved without any revelation,
because of their faith in a Mediator, in a Providence etc, not
explicit but implicit since they believed that God would
deliver mankind in whatever way was pleasing to Him. Cf II
Tim 2, 9 & 19: the word of God is not bound. The Lord
knoweth who are His.
I think it is not for us to pretend to know that. Job 19, 25: I
know my Redeemer liveth; 1have always felt that his is the
main thing, and that one cannot know that he lived, and I
cannot think that to believe that he lived (was born in
Bethlehem) is as important as to know that he lives.
However, as regards teachers: everyman is virtually an
alter Christus, ie, potentially capable of being able to say I live,
yet not I, but Christ in me; and I do not think it is anymans
prerogative to say to what extent this perfection has been
approached by any one. Marco Pallis Lama said of Christ, I
sec he was a very Buddha.
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England.
Marco Pallis, London, England.
To BERNARD KELLY
January 8, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Yours of 2.1.47. As before, I accept the authority of your
definition as regards Transubstantiation strictu sensu, and expect
you to make the necessary criticism of what I say in
Figures. . . . As regards most of the remainder, we arc, in the
first place agreed that there is una veritas; the question being
only whether in variis signis varie resplendeat. The problem
therefore resolves itself, as always, into What think ye of
Christ? I do not think of Him as having revealed Himself
visibly only as Jesus, nor of the Church as being the literally
visible Roman Catholic universitas only; as you say, the
question is of religion, not really of religions. Which boils
down to asking whether, eg, Islam is religion. To this question I
say yes. Does a Roman Catholic have to say No? That is our
problem, isnt it?
I agree to the formula Jacob in Christ; but also simply
Christ, if Jacob earns the right to say I live, yet not I, but
Christ in me.
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England.
To JOHN JOSEPH STOUDT
May 14, 1947
My dear Dr Stoudt:
I am greatly indebted to you for sending. . ., through the
publishers, your. . . version of Jacob Boehmes The Way to
Christ. It is a very fine piece of translation, and I shall find an
opportunity to review it, perhaps for the Review of Religion if
the publishers have not sent them a review copy, or if not, if
you ask them to do so.
I would like to have seen fuller notes, for instance in
connection with the Spark, p 246 (cf note 31 in the JAOS
article I am sending you, though there is much more material
than is mentioned there). Notwithstanding that Bochme was
untaught, it seems to me he must in some way have had
knowledge of many traditional formulations. On the same
page, smouldering wick must be an echo of Matt xii, 23, and
this also is a reference to the Spark, which Philo speaks of as
asbestos, since it can never be totally extinguished. Very
probably Bochme got his material on the Spark from Eckhart,
who uses the concept so often and equates it with Syntcrcsis.
As regards the Separator (p xxix, cf 188) this is the Logos
Tomeus, on which E. R. Goodcnough has a valuable treatise in
Yale Classical Studies (III, 1932).
However, the chief thing I want to say is with reference to
your occasional depreciation of other religions, in the Introduc
tion xxxixxxiii. These seem to me to mar the perfection and
the serenity of your position. No one, I think, has a right to
compare his own with other religions unless he knows the
latter in their sources (original languages and contexts) as well
as he knows his own; it is absolutely unsafe to rely on
translations by scholarly rationalists, themselves entirely un
familiar with the language of Western mysticism. Take for
example, Boehme was not a Buddhist. I daresay you know
there exists a considerable literature in which it is argued that
many things in the New Testament are directly of Buddhist
origin; I do not believe this myself, but it shows how near
together these two come. There are many respects in which
Boehme is assuredly Buddhist; take for example the Super-
sensual Life on page 54, and the Buddhas words: Whoever
would nurse me, let him nurse the sick (Vin 1. 302). Or again
compare Bochmes Ungrund with the conception in Buddh
ism of the Incomposite (= Nirvana, for which sec p 68, in the
review of Archers book which I am sending). Again Boehmes
advocation of self-naughting (harking back of course to
Christs own denegat seipsum, which implies, according to the
Greek verb here, an ontological even more than an ethical
denial) is quite as strong as Eckharts and Blakes, and it is
identical with the Buddhist (and Hindu) conception no less than
with Christs odet suam animam. Again, Supersensual Life, p 27,
where the Unground is equivalent to nothing and all and this
is exactly equivalent to the Buddhist definitions of Nirvana as
void of all things coupled with the affirmation that he who
finds it findeth all (sabbam lagghatti, Khp viii).
With Supersenaul Life, 24, I would like you to comparc the
Bhagavad Gita 6.5,6, on the relations of the two selves (and of
course many parallels in Plato, and throughout the Christian
treatment of the accepted axiom duo sunt in homine)\ and for the
nature of their reconciliation, my article on the Hare (also sent
you, p 2, 3, passage as marked).
May I suggest that in your forthcoming major work on
Boehmc (to which I look forward eagerly) you make no
references to other religions? Such references in no way
enhance the glory of Christianity, but only tend to make the
non-Christian reader think that the work is nothing but another
piece of Christian propaganda. It is easy enough to interest a
Hindu in the classics of Western mysticism, but if these classics
are introduced with an accompaniment of misinterpretations of
his religion he is little likely to be attracted, only repelled. The
same standards of scholarship arc applicable to the whole field of
comparative religion, not only to Christianity, and the conccpt
of truth demands an absolute sense of responsibility. It is just
because your own mind and your positive exposition are so
good that I would urge you to omit from the major work any
pejorative references to other religions; Christianity has no
thing to gain, but everything to lose by them.
One other point, p xxxl: in a general way there is a logical
distinction between the way of devotion (bhakti in Hinduism)
and the gnostic way (jnana). But the end is the same. Consider
Rumis words: What is love? Thou shalt know when thou
becomest Me.
With kindest regards,
John Jospeh Stoudt, The Way to Christ, by Jacob Bochmc, New York, 1947.
JAOS = Journal of the American Oriental Society. The J AOS article referred to
was his review of John Clarke Archers The Sikhs in Relation to Hindus,
Moslems, Christians and Ahmadiyyas, in vol LXVII (1947, pp 67-30) of this
journal.
John Layards The Lady of the Hare: a Study in the Healing Power of Dreams was
reviewed by AKC in Psychiatry, vol VIII (1945, part 4, pp 507-513). See also
AKCs On Hares and Dreams, in Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society,
vol XXXVII, no 1, 1947.
Jalal ud-Din Rumi, Sufi saint, founder of a Sufi order, and one of the greatest
if not the greatest of Sufi mystical poets.
To FATHER GEORGE B. KENNARD, SJ
Octobcr 12, 1943
Dear Father Kcnnard:
Many thanks for your kind and long letter. I shall try to see
Father Johanns article. I would say that many of these things
arc matters of fact. 1agree that the West has something
invaluable to offer in Christianity, but the converse is no less
true.
As to the matters of fact: you say or cite that India has to be
taught the way of self-conquest, and also the doctrine of creatio
ax nihilo. I do not know why this should be so, seeing that both
arc already integral parts of Vedic philosopy. As to the first,
you will find some of the material in the Akimcanna paper I
am sending, and which I am sorry I must ask you to return, as I
have only a lending copy. As in Plato, with his mortal and
immortal soul, the Vedantic mortal self and its immortal Self
and Leader (= Platos Soul of the soul) and St Pauls Spirit as
distinguished from soul (Hcb iv, 12), the question is, which shall
rule, the better or the worse, superior or inferior. The most
direct statement about sc\{-conquest is, I think, that of Bhagavad
Gita VI. 5,6:
Let him uplift self by Self, not let self sink down; for verily
Self is the friend of the self, and also self s foe. Self is the
friend of the self in his case whose self has been conquered
(jitah, the ordinary military term, as in jaya, victory), but acts
as the foe in hostile conflict with self undaunted.
Regarding creatioex nihilo, I would have to write a longer
exposition, dealing with kha(chaos), akasa (light as quintess
ence), and the Gnostic topes; with reference also to SumTheol
(Aquinas) 1.45.1: emanatioomnis entisex nonentequodest nihil* (I
quote from memory); to the equation of God with nihil in Eckhart
and other mystics, it is obvious that the first cause of things
must be no thing; and the whole matter of intelligible forms
and sensible phenomena in West and East sources; and also take
up the uses of teino and its Sanskrit equivalent tan (extend),
together with the thrcad-spirit doctrine (cf in my Literary
Symbolism in the Dictionaryof WorldLiterature, 1943, where it
is briefly cited); and the use of elko. In our theology God is the
Supreme Identity of being-and-non-being (sadasat), and these
are his essence and his nature, which latter he separates from
himself as a mother of whom to be born (of coursc, I could give
you all the references, but wont do that now). Hence the
precise statement of Rgveda X.7214: being is born of
non-being. It is interesting, too, that just as our nothing is
also evil, viz, naught-y, so a-sat, non-being has also precisely
this value of naughty in Sanskrit contexts. So too, the
process of perfecting is a procedure from a to-be-done to a
having-done-what-was-to-bc-done, ie, potentiality to act.
We are thus dealing with a whole system of equivalent notions.
In my view, then, it is not so much a question of introducing
any new doctrinal truths to one another, as it is of bringing
together the equivalent formulations and so establishing the
truth on the basis of both authorities. This I conceive to be the
proper work of comparative religion, considered as a true
discipline and not mere satisfaction of curiosity. The different
scriptures rather illuminate than correct one another.
With reference to the Cross: consider the implications of
teino, with reference to the crucifixion as an extension. From
our point of view, the Eternal Avatara (and of course, we
should regard Christ as one of His epithets) is extended in
principio on the three dimensional cross of the universe that he
fills, that would be involved in the eternal birth, while the
historical crucifixion in the two dimensions would be the
necessary projection of the same event in a world of contraries
(enantiai, right and left, etc).
I am afraid I cannot, although your kind invitation is
attractive, now promise to write on any of the problems you
suggest, for the reason that I am snowed under by existing
commitments and unfinished articles. Incidentally, in the first
issue of the Bookman, I am disagreeing with Beardsley and
Wimsatts statements on Intention in the Dictionary of World
Literature, and maintaining that criticism must be based on the
ratio of intention and result, the classical standard of judge
ment, and I believe this will interest you.
I shall, in accord with what you say, expect return of one
copy of Why Exhibit. . .? presently. Most of the English
reviewers either, as Catholics, agree with the general thesis, or
as aestheticians cannot bear to agree that art has any other
purpose than to produce sensations, or bring themselves to
have to think in the presence of a work of art.
I have also written an introduction for Gills posthumous
essays.
With very kind regards,
* The passage from the Summa Theologiae (I-I.45.1, res) which AKC cited
from memory was presumably the following: Sicut igitur generatio hominis
est ex non enteguod est non homo, ita creatio, guae est emanatio totius esse, est ex non
ente guod est nihil.
Father George B. Kennard, S J, managing editor of The Modem Schoolman: a
Quarterly Journal of Philosophy, published by St Louis University, St Louis,
Missouri, USA.
Father P. Johanns, Introduction to the Vedanta, Catholic Press, Ranchi,
India, 1943. Akimcanna: Self-Naughting, New Indian Antiquary, III (1940),
pp 1-16.
Kha and Other Words Denoting Zero in Connection with the Metaphysics
of Space, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, VII (1934), pp 487-497.
Intention, The American Bookman, I, 1, Winter 1944, pp 41-48.
Introduction, It All Goes Together, Selected Essays by Eric Gill, New York,
1944.
To FATHER GERALD VANN, OP
March 18, 1947
Dear Gerald Vann:
I am naturally somewhat disarmed by your letter of the 10th.
But I think the whole matter is too important to permit any
intrusion of personal feeling. It is not only a question of
sincerity but of responsibility, both to ones own and to any
other religion. I say other, but I try to avoid as far as
possible the use of religions in the plural, the real question
being one of the relation of differing forms of religion in the
singular, just as it is a matter not of different truths, but of
different ways of stating the Una Veritas. Thus, one could state
the whole problem (from a Christian point of view) by asking
Is Islam religion?. For most Christians, of course, the answer
is a foregone conclusion; but that is their misfortune. On the
other hand, that very learned and devout Muslim, Prince Dara
Shikuh, affirms that in their teachings he did not find any
difference, except verbal, in the way in which they sought and
comprehended Truth (Majmul Bahrein, Introduction). I think
that this is the position one would reach by really thorough
comparison of any two forms of religion.
But to return to the immediate problem. You speak of
reading sources. Unless I am assuming wrongly that you do
not mean original Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali or Chinese
sources, I must point out that such translations as are available
in European languages are of a very varying quality. Perhaps
the best in a way are those that come nearest to being cribs.
The trouble is that the earlier ones were made chiefly by
missionaries for their own ends, and the later arc mostly by
rationalist-nominalist scholars to whom the language of the
Schoolmcn would have been as incomprehensible as that of the
Eastern scriptures themselves. They simply did not know the
English equivalents for the metaphysical terms that they found
themselves coping with for the first time in their lives; not to
mention that even they, too, had inherited from the Christian
civilisation of Europe, in which they no longer believed, a
superiority complex. One must be, therefore, exceedingly
choosy in ones use of translations; and even if one learns one of
the languages for oneself, still the literal reading will not reveal
the content until one has reached the point of endowing the
original keywords with all their pregnant significance, no
longer attempting to think of them simply in terms of some
one English equivalent.
All that you, and many others have to say positively about
the content of Christian religion is well worth reading. But in
making a negative statement with rcspcct to any other form of
religion can there be any value? You know how hard it is to
prove a negative. I think I have never made a negative
statement about any religion. To make such negative state
ments necessarily arouses opposition, and that is the last thing
one wishes. As I sec it, the two greatest dangers to which
Christianity is exposed at the present time arc 1) its claim to
exclusive truth and 2) its overemphasis on the supposedly
historical event; perhaps these are the two main points on
which Christianity could profit by the study of Hinduism.
As I said previously, I am not at all an uncritical admirer of
Huxley, but I do think he has greatly grown in the last few
years, and may go further yet.
Father Gerald Vann, OP, Blackfriars School, Laxton, England.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
November 28, 1945
Sir,
Mr Francis Glendenning is indeed in a predicament. If he
assumes that Christianity is the judgement upon all non-
Christian religions, it becomes impossible for any Christian to
teach Comparative Religion, as other subjects are taught,
objectively. And yet, the understanding of other religions is an
indispensable necessity for the solution by agreement of the
economic and political problems by which the peoples of the
world are at present more divided than united.
If Comparative Religion is to be taught as other sciences are
taught, the teacher must surely have realised that his own
religion, however true, is only one of those that arc to be
compared. In other words, it will be necessary to recognize
that those institutions which arc based on the same premises, let
us say, the supernatural, must be considered together, our own
amongst the rest, whereas today, whether it is a question of
imperialism, or of race prejudice, or of a comparison between
Christianity and paganism, we arc still preoccupied with the
uniqueness . . . of our own institutions and achievements, our
own civilization (Ruth Benedict).
One cannot but ask whether the Christian whose conviction
is ineradicable that his own is the only true faith can
conscientiously permit himself to expound another religion,
knowing that he cannot do so honestly; he will be almost
certain, for instance, to use the expression pantheism or
polytheism as terms of abuse without having considered the
actual relevance or irrelevance to a given case. The only
alternative, at present, is to leave the children to their ignorance,
or to have Comparative Religion taught by non-Christians
who, in Philos words, can speak of the One God whom with
one accord all the Greeks and barbarians acknowledge
together.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
December 1946
Sir,
In further response to Mr Glendinning, I agree, of course,
that no subject can be taught objectively, absolutely. It is,
however, every teachers duty to communicate the real content
of the subject as objectively as possible. My point was that
Christians commonly refer to other religions and use a few of
their technical terms (such as karma, nirvana) without any
personal knowledge of the connotations of the terms or the
contexts in which they are employed; they rely on translations
made either by propagandists or by scholars who are usually
rationalists unacquainted with the terms of theology and
indifferent or hostile to religion of all kinds; and that I regard as
irresponsible and disingenuous.
As for the uniqueness of Christianity: in the first place, this
can only be a matter of faith, not of historical certainty; one
cannot have it both ways because, as Aristotle says, factual
knowledge can be only of what is normal, not of exceptions. In
the second place, I can only say that I am happy to disclaim
uniqueness for my own beliefs, and that I can, and often do,
defend the truths of Christianity accordingly. I am very sure
that it redounds to the greater glory of God that Una veritas in
variis signis varie resplendeat.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
January 8, 1946
Sir,
I am afraid that Gens thoroughly misunderstands my
position. In fact, I agree with him in almost everything. I never
maintained and I do not hold that Comparative Religion, or
even ones own, can be taught as other sciences are taught. I
said that Comparative Religion must be taught with at least as
much regard for the truth as teachers of science usually have,
and objectively in this sense, that the scriptures of the other re-
ligions must not be misconstrued. I fully agree that no one can
teach religion, whether his own or anothers or even talk sense
about religion until religion has been a real experience in his
own life. But for the teaching of truth about other religions it is
not enough, however indispensable, to have had experience of
ones own; it is also necessary to be as familiar with the texts of
the other religions as one is (or should be) with those of ones
own. What I complain of is that Christian writers (who often
rely upon translations that have been made by scholars who,
learned as they may be so far as language goes, arc rationalists
and quite ignorant both of religious experience and of the
traditional terms in which it has been described) continually
make use of the technical terms of other religions while
knowing nothing personally of their etymology, history or use
in the original contexts. We find, for example, Maya
rendered by illusion; but Maya is that art, or in Jacob
Boehmes sense magic by which the Father manifests
himself; the analogues of Maya being Greek Sophia or Hebrew
Hochma, that wisdom or cunning by which God operates.
We find Nirvana rendered by annihilation (no one stops to
ask of what?), though the word means despiration, as
Meistcr Eckhart uses the term. I accuse the majority of
Christian writers of a certain irresponsibility, or even levity, in
their references to other religions. I should never dream of
making use of a Gospel text without referring to the Greek, and
considering also the earlier history of the Greek words
employed, and I demand as much of Christian writers.
As for Folklore and Mythology, these, indeed, are sources of
sacred knowledge, but to understand them requires something
more than a collectors or cataloguers capacities. 1have no
respect whatever for the approaches such as those of Frazer or
Levy-Bruhl and often have said so. I am far, indeed, from
denying that heresies are current, and may arise anywhere, or
that they do arise when people think for themselves. In
reality, this is not a matter of thinking at all, but of
understanding. I agree with Blake that there is no natural
religion. What I regard as the proper end of Comparative
Religion is the demonstration of fundamental truths by a cloud
of witnesses. Our task is one of collation rather than compari
son. I agree with Gens that Comparative Religion is a rather
unfortunate phrase, since it is not really religions but religion
that wc arc talking about. What wc are really comparing is the
idioms or symbols in which different peoples at different times
have clothed the revelations of Himself that God has given
them. The idioms differ (although far less than is commonly
supposed) bccause nothing can be known but in accordance
with the mode of the knower, but what variety there is in no
way infringes the truth propounded by St Ambrose, that all
that is true, by whomsoever (and however) it has been said, is
from the Holy Ghost, or, as St Augustine says, from Him
whose throne is in heaven, and [who] teaches in the heart.
AKC
To PROFESSOR ARTHUR BERRIEDALE KEITH
1937
Dear Professor Keith:
I am always appreciative of your tolerant attitude towards
my idealistic approach. I am of course ready to agree that in
an article like Mans last end (which, by the way, will be
printed in Asia), 1am considering both systems in their highest
and deepestparamarthikasignificance. However, it is at least
as necessary and proper that this should be done by some and for
some, as it is to study religions also in their lower aspects. So
my reply to your criticism would take this form (using your
own words with very slight change). After all these systems
are what they mean to the deeper minds concerned with them,
no less truly than they are what they mean to the average
believer.
Just as in mediaeval exegesis the possibility of interpretation
on at least four levels of reference (literal, moral, allegorical and
anagogic) is always recognized, so I think one can approach the
Indian texts from different points of view, each of which is
legitimateso long as one is perfectly conscious of what one is
doing at the time.
With kind regards, very sincerely
Professor Arthur Berriedale Keith, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Indian Doctrine of Mans Last End, Asia, XXXVIII (1937), pp
186-213.
This letter was in response to one from Prof. Keith in which he commented as
follows on said article: It is very brilliant and attests as usual your
remarkable familiarity both with Christian and Indian thought. My only
objection is to your conclusion in the form in which you have framed it. You
have certainly established the fundamental identity of the views of certain
profound aspects of Christianity and Hinduism, but these aspects make up
but a very little part of what we understand as Hinduism and Christianity,
and your conclusions would seem to be very far from reality to many Hindus
and Christians alike. After all, these systems arc not what they mean to the
deeper minds concerned with them, but to the average believer. . . .
TO ADE DE BETHUNE
May 6, 1937
Dear Adc de Bcthune:
In the first place I enclose an extract from a letter from an
English Catholic of considerable standing, though not a
professional theologian.
Secondly, I should like to say that I have not the slightest.
interest in trying to placate anyone, but only in the Truth,
which I regard as One. It would take too long to show here
how hard it would be to say what doctrines (Matters of faith, as
distinguished from matters of detail) arc not common to
Christianity and Hinduism (as well as other traditions, the
Islamic for example). As to reincarnation, the doctrine has been
profoundly misinterpreted, alike by scholars, Thcosophists,
and neo-Buddhists. On the other hand, the doctrine about
what is under and what beyond the Sun is expounded in almost
identical terms in both traditions.
I often find myself in the position of a defender of Catholic
truth, and willingly enough; all the doctrines usually regarded
as difficult seem to me to both intelligible and to be represented
in Hinduism. On the other hand, though individual Protestants
may be truly religious, I cannot seriously equate Protestantism
with Christianity, and regard the Reformation as a Reforma
tion.
It is very easy to discover apparent contradictions between
Christianity and Hinduism, but it requires a very thorough
knowledge of both and perhaps a faith in both, to discover
whether these apparent contradictions are real. The principal
difference in actual formulation is perhaps that Hinduism
strictly speaking deals almost exclusively with the Eternal
Birth, which in exoteric Christianity is, so to speak, only the
more important of the two births, temporal and eternal.
In the last sentence I say strictly speaking because in
Buddhism, which is an aspect of Hinduism, related to the
orthodox tradition somewhat as Protestantism is to Catholic
ism, the manifestation of the Eternal Messiah (or as we express
it, Avatara) is given a temporal form. I may add that my faith in
the truth of Christianity (faith as defined by St Thomas)
would not in the least be affected by a positive disproof of the
historicity of the Christ, and I wonder if your friend could say
as much.
I send you separately a few other papers of mine, of which I
will ask you to return those on Exemplarism and on Rebirth
and Omniscience, as I have but few copies. I send also 3 copies of
Mans Last End for which you can send me 34 cents in
stamps. I need hardly say that this paper, which was originally
a broadcast and will be printed in Asia for May, was necessarily
a very brief and undocumented statement; a summary, in fact,
of some material collected for a comparison of Indian and
Christian concepts of deificatio. The other papers will suffice to
show that I have a background for what I say. I wonder indeed
if your friend has anything like a similar background from
which to speak of what only a Christian believes, ie, for
making statements as to what is not believed elsewhere. I often
wonder why so many Christians resent the very thought that
perhaps the truth has been known elsewhere, although express
ed in other idioms. Since for me there is in the last analysis only
one revealed tradition (of which the different forms are so
many dialects), it is for me a source of interest and pleasure to
recognize the same truths differently expressed at different
times and by different peoples. Cf p 331 of the Speculum article.
My article in the Art Bulletin, Vol. XVII (a translation and
discussion of Ulrich Englcbcrti, De Pulchro), would probably
interest you.
Yours sincerely,
Ade de Bethune, identified p 28. She had written to AKC about his article
The Indian Doctrine of Mans Last End, raising objections both on her
part and on the part of her (Protestant) friend about the correlation of
Hindu and Christian positions. The enclosed cxtract, mentioned in the first
paragraph, was from a letter by Eric Gill concerning the same article, and is
repeated here: . 1 am very glad to have it. It seems to me faultless,
though I suppose the pious practising Christian would feel that it left him
rather high and dry, as it leaves out (necessarily, from the point of view of
metaphysics) all the personal loving contact which he has with Christ as
man, brother, lover, bridegroom, friend. . . . I don't think there is anything
at all wrong with what you have written: I think it is all just true, but it is
written at a level removed from that of the ordinary consciousncss and. . .
Two Passages is Dantes Paradiso', Speculum XI (1936), 327-328.
Mediaeval Acsthctic. I. Dionysius the Psucdo-Areopagite and Ulrich
Engelberti of Strassburg, Art Bulletin, XVII (1935), Pt 1, 31-47.
In later years, Dr Coomaraswamy changcd his views on the orthodoxy of
Buddhism, and would no longer have referred to it as Protestant.
To PROFESSOR MYER SCHAPIRO
Octobcr 18, 1946
Dear Schapiro:
1dont find much conflict between religions, except, of
course when individuals arc expressing individual opinions and
misunderstandings. If understood according to Philo, the Jews
would not have disagreed with the idea of eternal creation;
no doubt, any fundamentalist would, but the fundamental
ists on their side arc as bad as some scientists (eg, Haldane who
writes on Time and Eternity in the current Rationalist
without ever even mentioning the traditional and almost
universal definitions of eternity as not everlasting but nowthis
means, of course, that he is only talking about what he
supposes eternity to mean, and is not dealing with the subject
historically at all) are on theirs. I think also, it might be difficult
to find a doctrine of the eternal fixity of species as such; most
traditional philosophers as such (like many modern psychol
ogists) regard the existence of things (men included) as
postulate, useful as such for pragmatic purposes, but not such
that one can say is of them; this is repeatedly pointed out in
Greek and is equally Buddhist; Augustine also emphasizes the
mutability of body and soul, almost in Buddhist terms.
Mycr Schapiro, professor of art history, Columbia University, New York.
To PROFESSOR SIDNEY HOOK
undated
Dear Prof Hook:
I have given a large part of my life to the study of
comparative religion, using the original sources (Latin, Greek,
Sanskrit, Pali and to some extent Persian). I deny absolutely
your assertion in the Nation Jan 20th, that the elements of
religion must be thinned down to the vaguest phrases if they
arc to be universally acccptablc. On the contrary, the different
scripturcs arc full of precise and detailed equivalents, and in fact, 1
myself hardly ever expound any doctrine from only a single
sourcc.
Very sincerely,
Sidney Hook, professor of philosophy, New York University, New York,
USA.
To PROFESSOR J. WACH
August 23, 1947
Dear Professor Wach:
1read your paper in the July Journal of Religion with much
interest. For me, of course, theology is a science common to
all religions, and not the private property of any. In view of
Aquinas as cited in the enclosed, p 60, it would seem to me
virtually impossible for any Roman Catholic to maintain that
no non-Christian scripture can have been inspired. Indeed,
from the point of view of those who are opposed to all religion,
nothing could well be more laughable than for anyone to claim
that his religion alone has been revealed. I hold with Blake
that there is no natural religion (which parallels your
citations from Newman and Soderblom). I am sending a copy
of your paper to a R. C. friend of mine in England who is
devoting himself to a consideration of this question: What is
to be the attitude of Roman Catholics to the Oriental religions
as now better known than heretofore?; for which purpose he
has learnt Sanskrit himself. We are both agreed that neither of
us is in search of a solution in terms of latitudinarianism.
Here I might also mention that I know two European brothers,
one a Trappist monk, the other a leading Moslem; both are
men of prayer; neither has any wish to convert the other; and
know, too, of a learned and aged nun who said to us: I see
there is no ncccssity for you to be a Christian. The Hindu
attitude might be expressed as follows: Hinduism has outlived
the Christian propaganda of modern times . . . . It is now able
to meet any of these world religions on equal terms as their
friend and ally in common cause (Renaissanceof Hinduism,
D. S. Sharma, 1944, p 70). I have myself often said to
Christians, even if you arc not on our side, we are on yours.
As regards the collation of doctrines, Christian and non-
Christian, I think this task has so far only been begun. For
example, who has ever stressed the Buddhist Whoever would
nurse me, let him nurse the sick in relation to In as much as
yc have done it unto one of the least of these . . . yc have done
it unto Me? Even as regards pre-Christian Greek, compara
tively little has been done; mainly, I suppose, bccausc such
tasks arc distasteful to most Christians. Of course one finds a
similar attitude elsewhere also; there arc some Indians who
resent my own position, according to which there is nothing
unique in Indian religion, apart from its local color, ie,
historical expression in the language of those whose religion it
has been (nothing can be known except in the mode of the
knowcr). There are, indeed, two kinds of persons; those who
take pleasure in recognizing identities of doctrines, and those
who they offend (and who, as Schopenhauer long ago pointed
out, strive to show that when the same things arc said in as
nearly as possible the same way, the meaning is different);
In the case of the Hindu-Moslcm problem in India (which is
now mainly a political rather than a religious matter), the
solution can only be found . . . starting from the position
unequivocally affirmed by Jahangir and Dara Shikosh that
their Vedanta is the same as our Tasawwuf. It is from men
like these (and like Plutarch) that we have to learn how to tackle
the problems of comparative religion. By the way, I do not
think this is such an unfortunate term, because it is significant
that the word religion is used in the singular; comparative
religion and the history of religion* are not quite the same
thing. The former, I think, can only be studied by men who arc
themselves religious.
Very sincerely,
Joachim Wach, professor at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island,
USA.
Jahangir and Dara Shikosh, see p 48.
To JOHN CLARK ARCHER
Date unertain, 1945 or 46
Dear Professor Archer:
I greatly appreciate your review of my Recollection. .
and . . Transmigrant in Review of Religion. I would only
like to say, I think you must be aware that I am anything but
indifferent to religion. But I look to God to satisfy my head
as well as my heart, and it seems to me perfectly legitimate in
any particular study to confine oneself to the intellectual aspects
of ones belief, since one is not, for the moment, concerning
oneself with the active life. At the same time the intellectual
aspects lead, in fact, to the same practical conclusions in ethics
as those which you defend. Love thy neighbour as thyself: it
was long ago pointed out by Deussen [that] this holds good a
fortiori if thy neighbour is, essentially, thyself, if what we love
either in ourself or in others is not really the individual, but the
immanent deity in both. This was also Ficinos conception of
Platonic love. Then, I would call your attention to the fact
that the term Vedanta occurs in the Svetasvetara and Mundaka
Upanishads, and docs not apply only to Sankaras philosophy. I
gave enough questions, I think, to show that his only
transmigrant dictum had ample older authority. Lastly, if, as
Aristotle says, eternal beings arc not in time, I cannot see
how they can be thought of as continually learning, as
temporal or acvitcrnal beings might be; .the latter, indeed, in
Buddhist doctrine, arc notably thought of as capable of further
learning and of rising higher. By the way, also, many
summits would imply to me a polytheism; but perhaps I miss
your meaning here. You may be interested to know I shall be
reviewing your Sikhs . . ., mostly with cordial appreciation,
but with criticism of a few minor points (esp Rumis supposed
belief in reincarnation, and the reference to Buddhism as a
nastika system). Incidentally, I wonder if you have ever noticed
that the Buddha is several times referred to in canonical texts as
saccanama, and that all his undergraduate disciples are sekha.
Very sincerely,
John Clark Archcr, Hoober Professor of Comparative Religion, Yale
University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Recollection, Indian and Platonic and On the One and Only Transmig
rant, both by WKC, were published as Supplements to the Journal of the
American Oriental Society, LXIV (1944).
The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino, P. O. Kris teller, New York, 1943.
The Sikhs in Relation to Hindus, Moslems, Christians and Ahmadiyas, by John
Clark Archcr, reviewed by AKC, JAOS, LXVII, 1947.
Nastika, reductionist, nothing more than. ... Dr Coomaraswamy contri
buted significantly towards dispelling notions of Buddhism as merely a
heresy of Hinduism,
To JOHN CLARK ARCHER
May 21, 1947
My dear Professor Archcr:
Many thanks for your kind and patient letter. I will take up
the points in the same order. I did not mean to suggest that you
had stated any direct connection of Sikhism with Buddhism,
but in this connection thought it worth while myself to call
attention to a remarkable continuity of the Indian tradition in
thinking of God as truth, a tendency extending from the Rgveda
to Gandhi (for I might have cited also Rgveda V.25.2: sahi
satyah).
Regarding caste, the difference between exclusively and
utterly different as in the referents. That part of Hocarts
book which deals with caste elsewhere than in India does not
deal with class distinctions but with the real equivalents of
caste elsewhere, and I therefore cited him in illustration of the
view that caste is not exclusively Indian. On the other hand,
/ said that caste is utterly different from the class distinctions
that arc so conspicuous in the so-called democracies. I did not,
therefore, contradict myself.
As regards Buddha, you repeat that he denied the reality of
God; and . . . this was what I contradicted, and still do. I
expressly omitted to point out that he delieved in Gods,
thinking that would have been irrelevant to the actual point. I
am thoroughly familiar with, I think, all the Pali sources
bearing on this point, and am satisfied that he not only believed
in Brahma (as distinct from Brahma), but was himself
Brahma-become (having been a Brahma in previous births).
You said that Nanaka was not a nastik with respect to God;
but that the Buddha was. I cant agree. But to prove my point
would amount to a short article with full citations.
Regarding the only transmigrant (Sankaras phrase, not
mine): I see nothing strange in the view that all things are
infused by a power that operates in all. In fact, I should have
thought that most Christians would think that.
I must apologize for seeming to credit you (I use the word
advisedly) with the sentence ending one perfect source.
No doubt your diagnosis of our different temperaments is
more or less correct. But I think you will allow that I never
express personal opinions, but speak always samula, always
citing authorities. What I would say is that I do not think a
realistic, dualistic, individualistic mental make-up looks at all
like one naturally adapted to interpret Indian or related types of
thought without distortion.
Sincerely dnd cordially,
PS: I cant agree that we are saying the same things about Rum-i;
you said explicitly that he believed in reincarnation, and I
produced chapter and verse to show that he did not do so, in
the now commonly accepted animistic interpretation of the
word. Nor can I agree with you than any Sufi (or Vedantist)
identified himself (Boehmes that which thou callcst I or
myself ) with God; it is the immanent God in us, not this
man, so-and-so, that can be identified with God, and must be,
if there is to be any sense to the faith of those (like Cusa, and the
Greek Orthodox theologians) who consider mans last end one
of thcosis by the elimination of omnis alteritatis et diversitatis.
Sinccrely,
John Clark Archer, Hoobcr Professor of Comparative Religion, Yale
University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Dr Archer had written to
AKC: I myself find it difficult to associate so intimately the Rgveda,
Plotinus and St Thomas . . . . But a mystical sense disregards time and
space . . . . Your article drips secretions of the mystical. I am myself
somewhat more realistic in my reading of the Rgveda, and of the Upanishads
also. Under this latter, AKC wrote: pour rire, si non pleurer!to laugh, if
not rather to cry!
Nankar, or Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion.
Nastik, a nothing more-ist or reductionist.
Brahma, the Supreme Principle.
Brahma, first named in the Hindu Trimurti or triple manifestation of Brahma,
Vishnu and Siva. The word brahma also refers to a member of the highest of
the four traditional Hindu castes.
To GERSHOM G. SCHOLEM
November 9, 1944
Dear Professor Scholcm:
I have been reading your Major Trends inJewish Mysticism
with the greatest interest, and am only sorry I have been unable
to procure a copy here. If, by chance, it is still available in
Jerusalem, I should be very much obliged if you would direct
your bookseller to send me a copy, with the bill.
Tsimtsum seems to me to correspond exactly to William
Blakes expression contracted and identified into variety.
Throughout I have been interested in the Indian parallels,
which I have long since learnt to expcct everywhere, since
metaphysics is one science, whatever the local coloring it takes
on. In this connection I am sending you a copy of my article on
Recollection, Indian and Platonic and Transmigration, in
which I touched on the treatment of recollection by Jewish
writers. You will see that the (true) Indian doctrine of
transmigration is similar to that ofgilgul (= Ar tanassul). I am
dealing with the whole subject further in an article on
Gradation and Evolution which will appear in Isis.
Gcrshom G. Scholcm, professor of Jewish mysticism, Hebrew University,
Jerusalem, and author of Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Jerusalem, 1941.
Recollection, Indian Platonic and on the One and Only Transmigrant,
published as Supplements to the Journal of the American Oriental Society,
LXIV, 1944.
Gradation and Evolution, Isis, XXXV, 1944.
To HELEN CHAPIN
Dcccmber 22, 1945
Dear Helen:
. . . I think you (like Aldous Huxley) arc much too much
afraid of what you call sugar; and on the other hand, 1
suspcct some tracc of sugar in your love of nature. Of
coursc, wc all love nature; but we dont have to go so far as
to exclaim that only God can make a tree, as if he was not
just as interested in making fleas. Blake was afraid that
Wordsworth was fond of nature; and as Eckhart says, to find
nature (ie, natura naturans) as she is herself, all her forms must be
shattered.
I sec no sugar in Ramakrishna! Bhakti in the Bhagavad Gita is
scrvice (in the sense of giving to anyone what is their due,
service as a servant) or attendance, rather than love
literally. Platonic love is not the love of others for
themselves, but of what in them is divine, and as this is
identical with what in us is divine, is just as much self-love (ie,
love of Self) as love of others; the notion of I and that of
others is (as in Buddhism) equally delusive, and what we
need is not altruism but Self-love in the Aristotelian and in
the Scholastic sense.
Very sincerely,
Helen Chapin, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; see
table of contents for other letters.
Ramakrishna refers to the major nineteenth century Indian saint, and to the
account of his life and teaching, Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, New York.
Bhakti, usually translated as love or devotion (to God). For a classical Indian
exposition of bhakti, see Narada Bhakti Sutras, translated by Swami
Tyagisanada, Madras, India, 1972.
To LIGHT, LONDON
May 21, 1942
Sir,
Apropos of the article on Reincarnation by Mrs Rhys
Davids and the leading article Of Rebirth in your issue of
January 8, 1942, and with special reference to the remark In
India it is a cardinal point of Hindu Dogma, may I say that
while there is in India a doctrinc of Transmigration (in the sense
of passage from states of being to other states of being),
Reincarnation (in the sense of the return of individuals to
incarnation on earth) is not a Hindu doctrinc. The Hindu
doctrinc is, in the words of Sankaracarya that There is no
other transmigrant (samsarin) but the Lord. That this is the
teaching of the Upanishads and older texts could be amply
supported by many citations, and follows directly from the
position that our powers arc merely the names of his acts,
who is the only seer, hearer, thinker, etc, in us, and from the
view, common to Hinduism and Buddhism that it is the
greatest of all delusions to consider I am the doer. In
succcssive births and deaths it is Brahma, not I, that comes
and goes; goes when wc give up the ghost and as this spirit
returns to God who gave it. This is also the teaching of
Christ, who says that if we would follow him wc must hate our
souls, and that no man has ascended into heaven save he who
came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is
heaven.
The transmigrating Lord occupies, indeed, bodies of which
the character is casually and fatally determined, but he never
becomes anyone, and it follows that no one who is still
anyone can be joined unto the Lord so as to be one spirit.
For nothing that has had a beginning in time can come to be
immortal; if there is a way out it can only be in the realisation
that I live, yet not I, but Christ (or Brahma, or by whatever
other name wc speak of God) in me.
Surely, before we discuss Reincarnation wc ought to be
sure that a doctrinc of Reincarnation has been maintained by
anyone but the Thcosophists.
AKC
Mrs A. F. Rhys Davids, Surrey, England, Director of the Pali Test Society.
The article in question had appeared in Light (London), LXI1, No 3182,
January 8, 1942.
To RUTH CAMPBELL
January 6, 1938
Dear Miss Campbell:
Many thanks for your kind letter and the careful attention you
have given my article. I should like to say first that your office
dogs missed the point as regards transmigration. What I
said was that reincarnation was not taught and represented an
impossibility. This does not exclude the validity of metemp
sychosis on the one hand (for which by the way, Hermes
uses migration, not (ram-migration) and of transmigration on
the other. I had thought I made it very clear that transmigration
has nothing to do with time or place, but takes place entirely
within you, and is from the periphery to the centre of being.
I believe this is made so clear in the article that only a re-reading
is required.
As to the editorial problem, how would it be to print the
first part in smaller type with a footnote to the effect that the
reader may prefer to read the second part first. I feel myself that
to scatter the first part through the second would too much
interrupt the sequence of ideas; and that on the other hand it is
very necessary to in some way set aside our notions of
philosophy before we can begin to grasp the philosophia
perennis, the theme of which is rather pneumatological than
psychological, and gnostic rather than epistemological.
I might add that a limitation by Christianity would not
stand in the way of understanding, if this Christianity were a
real knowledge (of Christianity as understood by Dionysius,
Bonaventura, Thomas and Witelo, as well as Eckhart). My
experiences of Christians is that it is very rare to meet
with one who has any real conception of what Christianity
means.
Perhaps you would let me know your view on these notes.
Ruth Campbell, assistant editor of The American Scholar (the Phi Beta Kappa
quarterly), New York, USA.
The Vedanta and the Western Tradition, The American Scholar, VIII, 1939.
An o n y mo u s
Date uncertain
Sir:
Apropos of your remarks on Reincarnation in your issue of
June 4, may I say that I am rather familiar with Plato, Plotinus,
Philo, Hermes, etc, and that my writings abound with citations
from these authors. I share the view of Rene Guenon that all
apparent references to reincarnation of the individual on this
earth arc to be understood metaphorically. This was also the
view of Hierocles, stated in his Commentary on the Golden Verses
of Pythagoras, V.53. Passages can be cited also from Christian
and Islamic authors which appear to enunciate a doctrine of
reincarnation, yet cannot and do not really do so.
An adequate treatment of the subjcct would take a large
book. It must first be realized that in the traditional philosophy
our everyday life is not a being but a becoming, a perpetual
dying and being reborn; that is one kind of reincarnation.
Then that from the same point of view a man is reborn in his
children, who will represent him when he himself has
transmigrated elsewhere. And finally, that both the Vedanta,
and in connection with the doctrinc of Recollection, Plato
maintained that it is not the individual soul, but the Universal
Self that transmigrates, entering into every form of existence
whatever; in the words of Sankara, Verily, there is none but
the Lord that transmigrates. We cannot, in fact, even begin to
discuss the problem until wc have arrived at some understand
ing of the question Who and what am I? Before we can ask
whether or not we reincarnate or transmigrate, we must
make it clear to which of the two selves, mortal or immortal,
that all traditions, whether Greek, Christian or Oriental assume
to coexist in us, we are referring. Most of the Indian texts
that seem to speak of a reincarnation are cither descriptive of
this present life, or any kind of living, or rather of the Life that
is common to all things, and passes on from one to another
with absolute impartiality. That is not, of course, to deny that a
laity, taking for granted an identity of the individual soul
throughout life, have never assumed that this soul or
personality reincarnates; we simply mean to say that-such a
point of view is unorthodox, whether in West or East.
1cannot, of course, agree with you that East is East and West
is West, as was said by Kipling, of whom the late F. W. Bain
remarked that Hindu India was for him a book scaled with
seven seals. There is, indeed, a gulf dividing what is
modern from what is truly Oriental; but that is not a
geographical distinction, or one that could have been recog
nized before the fourteenth century. All that Kipling meant was
that he had never understood the East. May I commend to you
Rene Guenons East and West, and in particular the chapter
entitled Agreement on Principles? There are many different
ways of saying the same thing, but [this] does not imply
contradictory truths. In your view, either the East or the West
must be all wrong; and that is only really true if we are
contrasting, not East and West, but the modern anti-traditional
world with the traditional cultures based on universal princi
ples.
AKC
To PROFESSOR E. R. DODDS
June 19, 1942
Dear Professor Dodds:
Many thanks for your letter of May 8. I agree that Platos
mortal soul cannot be reincarnated. His imortal soul is
essentially the divine part of us. If this perpetually reincar
nates it is in its universal aspect and just in the sense that for the
Vedanta, God is the only transmigrator, forsooth (Sankara
on Brahma Sutra 1.1.5, and supported by innumerable texts).
HenGe Katha Upanishad speaks of those who are liberated as
filled for embodiment in the worldsthat would be in the
sense that for Plato Soul (not a soul) governs all things.
But the divine extension which is temporally determined by a
given individuality (by association with a mortal psycho
physical becoming) can be liberated from its necessitas coactionis
and then operates only according to necessitas injallibilitatis, ie,
its own nature as it is in itself.
If we can identify our consciousness of being with it in this
free aspect, then we are liberated from reincarnation in
any pejorative sense. And finally, this is the absolute liberation:
because the world process itself is part and parcel of our way of
thinking and from the eternal and divine point of view is not a
process but Gods knowledge of himself nowevcr and apart
from the time that is a factor in any concept of re-incarnation.
I believe that this, and the related doctrine of anamnesis are
two points in which the agreement of Plato and Vedanta is most
fundamental. Anamnesis, furthermore, makes pronoia intelligi
ble; since it precisely an omnipresence of soul (ie, spirit) to
all things that implies omniscience or Providence (Skr,
prajna, equivalent of pronoia etymologically and in meaning).
Sincerely,
E. R. Dodds, lecturer in classics, University College, Reading, and author of
Select Passage Illustrating Neoplatonism, London, 1923.
To H.G. RAWLINSON, CIE
December 6, 1946
Dear Rawlinson:
I think I am familiar with all the passages where dipa means
lamp, or means island, or is ambiguous. The ambiguity is
not important at D.II. 101; the point is that atta-sarana viharatha
is an injunction to so walk as having Self for refuge. Cf S. III.
143, Take refuge in the Self; D.II. 120: I (Buddha) have
made self my refuge; Vis, 393 and Vin 1. 23: Seek for the
Self. Surely one does not as a Buddhist resort to or take refuge
in the composite self that is not my Self (na me so atta,
passim).
Besides all that, there are many contexts in which there is a
clear distinction of the two selves: Dh 380 (Self the Lord and
Goal of self); A. 1.149, 249, 4.9 (the Great or Fair, distinguished
from the little or foul self); UdA 340 (Self identified with
Tathagata); J.6.253 (Self the Charioteer); also the many
passages on being Self guarded or Self-blamed, in all of
which cases one must remember that nil agit in seipsum.
Im just now writing a longish piece on reincarnation,
arguing that it was never anywhere a doctrine, but only a
popular belief, bound up with belief in the Ego of which the
Buddha denied the reality; in the case of Buddhism, I agree
with scholars like T. W. Rhys Davids, B. C. Law, D. T.
Suzuki, etc, all of whom deny that reincarnation was a
Buddhist doctrine. Incidentally, the word itself does not appear
in English before 1850, and it smacks of Theosophy.
Very glad to hear you got over your illness.
Very sincerely,
H. G. Rawlinson, identified on p. 39.
Reincarnation was incomplete at the time of AKCs death and has not
been published.
To WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING
February 1942
Dear Professor Hocking:
Further with respect to reincarnation: while it would be
impossible to treat the whole subject adequately in a letter, it
does occur to me to say that very many texts of the
Upanishads, etc, only appear to assert a reincarnation (in the
now accepted sense of the word) only because we have that
notion in our minds. You will be able, of course, to refer to
Bhagavad Gita 11.22, which I suppose most readers would think
of as a statement about reincarnation. But observe that Plato
and Eckhart use almost the same words, with respect to the
nature of this present life itself. Thus, Phaedo 87D, E: each
soul wears out many bodies, especially if the man lives many
years. For if the body is constantly, changing and being
destroyed while the man still lives, and the soul is always
weaving anew that which wears out, then when the soul
perishes, it must necessarily have on its last garment (the case
for the souls not perishing resting, of course, upon the fact that
it survives each of these changes of garment, and if so, why not
the last of them?). And Eckhart (Pfieffer, p 530) Aught is
suspended from the divine essence; its progression is matter,
wherein the soul puts on new forms and puts off her old ones.
The change from one into the other is her death, and the ones
she dons she lives in. In Humes . . . Upanishads, he often
assumes that the subject is this man when it is really Man,
and hence he thinks that we reincarnate, when really, as Sankara
says, There is, in truth, no other transmigrant than the Lord.
Very sincerely,
William Ernest Hocking was professor of philosophy at Harvard University.
To WILLIAM RALPH INGE
Date uncertain
Dear Mr Inge:
As regards karma, literally act, work, it is most important
to recognize that this concept has no inevitable connection with
the doctrine of reincarnation. Buddhism does not differ from
other traditional religions in holding that nothing happens by
chance. That is, every happening has antecedent causes, and
becomes in its turn a cause of subsequent events. Karma then,
as implying hetu-vada, literally aetiology per se, involves
nothing but a doctrine of the invincible operation 'of mediate
causes, and might be described as just as much a Christian as
an Indian doctrinejust as also krtva = potentiality, and
krtatrtyah (Pali katam karanityam )= all in act. Perhaps- as
good an enunciation of karma as one could wish for is St
Augustines as a mother is pregnant with the unborn
offspring, so the world itself is pregnant with the causes of
unborn beings (De Trin III.9; cf also St Thom Aquinas, Sum
Theol I. 115.2 ad 4).
If one believes in reincarnation, then of course one thinks
of it in terms of this same causality that governs the presently
observed sequence of events. But karma does not presuppose
reincarnation (as ordinarily understood). What Buddhist or
Hindu liberation is from is precisely becoming, present or
future, ie, from mutability; body and soul (as also pointed out
by St Augustine) being mutable; and in accordance with the
whole traditional philosophy for which the use of the word
is, implying being, is improper for anything that changes. In
precisely the same way for Buddhism, the body and the soul
are not my Self.
Hence the necessity of sclf-naughting (denegat seipsum) if one is
to be oneSelfself-naughting = Self realization. The psycho
physical personality, EGO, self, being subject to the operation
of mediate causes, ie, fate (cf St Thom Aquin [Sum Theol
I1.116, contra, 2] Fate is in the created causes thcmselves-
. . . . fate is the ordering of second causes to effects foreseen
by God). Once the Ego illusions have been overcome, the
whole problem of becoming, whether now or hereafter,
loses its meaning; explicitly, therefore, the Buddhist Arhant can
never ask: What was J? What shall I become? What am /? In
fact, for Christian and Islamic mystics equally, the words I, Is,
can properly be said only of God, and none else has any right to
say I am, though one may do so conventionally for purely
pragmatic purposes of every day existence, but always with the
mental reservation that (as modern psychologists have also
recognized) I is nothing but a postulate made for convenience
and reference to a sequence of behaviours.
Sincerely,
William Ralph Inge, CVO, DD, was Dean of St Pauls Cathedral. London,
Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge; and of Hertford College,
Oxford. He was a Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge,
author of the two volume The Philosophy of Plotinus (London, 1923) and one
of the most popular ecclesiastical writers of his day.
To DONA LUISA COOMARASWAMY
1932
. . . The Rgveda teaches resurrection (in a glorified body),
not reincarnation in the current sense of the word. It is doubtful
if reincarnation is taught even in Buddhism, where it is
expressly emphasized that nothing (no thing) is carried over
from a past to a future existence, though the latter is
determined by the former; ie, as far as births on earth are
concerned, it is another nama-rupa (individuality) that will reap
the rewards of our conduct. The expression rebirth as an
animal will then, for example, mean that if all men behaved in
a purely animal fashion, the result would be that in time,
animals only would be born on earth, life as determined by
mediate causes (karma) would find none but animal expression
here.
Roughly speaking it is not the personality that is reincar
nated, not an individual but a type: Le roi est mort, vive le roi, not
Henry IV is mort, vive Henry IV. What is transmitted is not an
entity but a type of energy (virya)-, practically, seed, as in
seed of Abraham . . . .
Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy, wife of AKC, spent two years in India
studying Hindi and Sanskrit. The above was part of a personal letter, from
which personal material has been deleted.
To WESLEY E. NEEDHAM
May 20, 1945
Deat Mr Needham:
Many thanks for letting me see the readings. I agree with the
translation, except I would say rite, not ceremony. By no
means are all ceremonies rites, and while rites must be formal,
they need not be ceremonious. I made myself a copy, as the
transliteration will help with other Nepal texts.
I am afraid I distrust Theosophy as a whole, though in fact, I
had a high regard for Mrs Besant personally. The notion of a
personal physical rebirth is not orthodox Brahmanism or
original Buddhism, since there is no psychic constant I that
could be reborn. I treat of this briefly in my One and Only
Transmigrant (JAOS Suppl 3, 1944, p 28), though a fuller
treatment is needed. All scholars are agreed that a doctrine of
individual physical rebirth is not Vedic, and this fact alone
should give one pause. I agree that some have been led to
Eastern thought through meeting with Theosophy, but the
best of these have realized that they must go to the sources
themselves sooner or later. I am sure you will not mind my
stating my exact position in the matter, even if you differ!
Very sincerely,
Mr Wesley Needham, West Haven, Connecticut, USA.
To WILLIAM RALPH INGE
February 15, 1947
Dear Dean Inge:
It so happens that I am writing a book on Reincarnation.
In your admirable work on Plotinus, I find the extraordinary
statement that in India there was no deliverance from rebirth
(and) hence the Buddhist revolt against the doctrine. The first
part of this phrase seems to me to be entirely meaningless; and
as regards the second, while it is true that in early Buddhism, it
is taught that reincarnation is not an ultimate truth, but only a
fa(on de parler bound up with the animistic belief in the reality of
the mutable self; this cannot be called a revolt. I had to
write the little footnote that is attached.
I do feel that one ought not to speak at all of other religions
than ones own unless one has a knowledge of their scriptures
comparable to that which one has of ones own. This is
especially true as regards Indian religions, where one who does
not read Sanskrit or Pali has to rely on translations made by
scholars who are themselves usually nominalists and rational
ists, quite ignorant of the technical terms of theology and
metaphysics. The result of relying on them is only to add to the
already too prevalent misunderstandings. In my own writings,
in which I constantly correlate India, etc, doctrines with
Christian, what I say is based on reading the Christian sources
in Latin and Greek, and never on what non-Christians may
have said about Christianity. Do you not think that
Christian writers ought to feel a similar responsibility when
speaking of the teachings of other religions?
Footnote: As regards your question, whether the concept of
Regeneration (transformation, resurrection or other equivalent
phrasing) is absent from any Eastern religion, I could only
answer No for Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, so far as my
positive knowledge goes. But it would certainly surprise me if
this idea could be shown to be or have been wanting anywhere,
even in primitive religions.
I know my letter was strongly worded; still, it could be that,
even if it gave you a shock, that might have its uses; a shock
is perhaps just what most Christians need at the present day.
Anyhow, many thanks for your kind and gentle reply. And
incidentally, I am sending you a little book of mine, just out,
and in which some of these matters are touched on.
What I say above, by the way, docs not exclude the
possibility of making sincere mistakes in ones positive
interpretation of the doctrines of another form of religion; for
example, Bernard Kelley tells me I somewhat misinterpreted
the Christian meaning of transubstantiation; in reply, I told
him by all means to correct me in his review. And as I have also
said before, I naturally agree that the necessity for a confutation
of heresies may arise anywhere; as the cthymology of the word
is, of thinking what one likes to think instead of the sometimes
hard things that one ought to think.
Very sincerely,
William Ralph Inge, identified p. 126.
Bernard Kelley, identified p. 20.
Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought, London, 1946.
To BERNARD KELLY
February 10, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Yours of 4.2.46 with two citations from Hinduism and
Buddhism. As regards the universal is real, the particular
unreal, I dont think we need have much trouble. I was
equating reality with being. So I mean what St Augustine
means when he says of created things that Te comparata nec
pulchra, nec bona, nec sunt. Such being as they have, such reality
therefore, is by participation, not of themselves. Exis
tent = ex aliosistens. Again Augustine (Conf VII. 11): esse
quidem, quoniamabs tesunt, nonesseautem, quoniamidquodesnon
sunt. Moreover, at least in so far as men are sinners, they have
not being at all (St Thom, SumTheol 1.20.2 and 4). The
general principle I have in mind is that things that are always
changing (like body and soul), St Augustine, Sermo 241 2.2;
3.3, cf Conf 7.11: that trully is, which doth immutably
remainit cannot be said of them that they are.
Secondly, on the question whether the immortality of a
created soul is conceivable. I had supposed that is an in
violable axiom, that whatever has a beginning must have an
end, also that mutability and mortality are inseparableall
change is a dying (Plato, Eckhart, etc). So we attribute
immutability, immortality, and no beginning to God. My
point in saying impossible would be that God cannot do
anything contrary to his own nature, and that to accuse Him (as
I should express it) of making anything at a given time that
should not also end in time would amount to a kind of
blasphemy, based on a false interpretation of the principle that
all things arc possible with God, which possibility does not
actually include self-contradiction, such as would be involved
if, for example, wc thought of Him as making things that have
been not have been.
If the soul (as St Augustine and the Buddha say) is
mutable, never selfsame from moment to moment, what can
one mean by its immortality? What is it? Surely, like my
own personal name, only a word which conveniently summa
rizes a sequence of changing behaviour and experiences. I have
always, of course, in mind the trinity of body, soul and spirit;
the latter is the Spirit of God that becomes the spirit of man (St
Thom Aquinas, sumTheol 1.38.2) which we give up when we
die (as Ps 104, 29; Eccl 12, 7). When Jesus died he gave up the
ghost (John 19, 30), and so do other men (Acts V.5 etc). If,
then, we would be immortal, we must be born again of the
Spirit, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit (John III,
38, cf I Cor VI, 17); in the meantime our continued existence
depends on the continued presence of the Giver (St
Bonaventura I Sent d 37, p 1, al, conc). As in PrasnaUpanishad
VI.3: it is a question of in whom shall I be departing (in
myself, or in the Self of the self, or Soul of the soul). I do not
need to tell you that psyche and psychikos are generally speaking
pejorative terms in the New Testament, or that the Word of God
extends to the severing of soul from Spirit. I could quote
much more, but in sum I cannot see what authority there is for
the supposition that anything created can never ceaseto exist;
and if you could point to one, it would irrevocably show that
the truths of reason and the truth of Christian revelation can
never be reconciled, which for me would be a horrible
conclusion, since I hold that both are from Him.
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England; identified on p. 20.
To DR P. F. VAN DEN DAELE
September 30, 1946
Dear Sir:
I appreciate your inquiry, but I suppose I must say that 1
cannot agree with your philosophy. I certainly hold with the
Traditional philosophy that nothing in the world happens by
chance. I can only think about free will on the basis of the
traditional doctrine duo sunt in homine (Ego and Self, Outer and
Inner Man), which doctrine is presupposed in all such
expressions as self-control, self-government, be your
self; these imply the duality because one and the same thing
cannot be both active and passive at one and the same time in
the same relations. For me, free will means willingness to obey
the dictates of the inner man, whatever the likes or dislikes of
the outer man might drive him to choose or prefer.
As to whether phenomena are illusions depends a good
deal on what we mean by illusions. It must be admitted that
things are not always what they seem to be, and in such cases
(the skeptic and Vedantic example being that of the rope
mistaken for a snake) the phenomenon as it presents itself is
certainly illusory. It has always been recognized, too, that
because of the ceaseless change that all things in time and space
undergo, it cannot be truly said that they are, but only that they
become. The word phenomena always implies an of;
appearances, but of what? Any reality the phenomena have
must derive from the reality of that of which the phenomena
are the appearances. Evolution, too, involves the question,
unfolding of what?
On this subject see my article in the currcnt issue of Main
Currents (Gradation, Evolution and Reincarnation). On the
whole, I think it best that I return your booklets.
Very sincercly,
Dr P. F. van Den Daele, D. C. Battle Creek, Michigan, USA, had written
to AKC to enlist his support for his new philosophy, the Absolute and
Relative Philosophy, which among other points held that phenomena in all
their endless variations are not illusions but a grand reality. . ., and that
chancc is not an unscientific concept, but that it plays an important part in
the vast drama of evolution throughout this entire universe. . . .
Gradation, Evolution and Reincarnation, Main Currents in Modern Thought,
IV, 1946; reprinted in Blackfriars, XXVII, 1948.
To BERNARD KELLY
April 9, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
. . . As regards soul, surely it will depend on which of the
senses in which the word is used whether or not it be anathema
to deny its immortality. One cannot overlook that the Word of
God extends to the sundering of soul from Spirit (Heb
IV, 12). Now, it is God who only hath immortality (I Tim
VI, 16). Can, therefore, anything but the Spirit of God (that)
dwellcth in you (I Cor III, 16) be immortal? This Spirit is the
Psychopomp; surely there is no hope of immortality for the
soul as such, but only if she dies and is reborn in and of the
Spirit? When St Paul says I live, yet not I, but Christ [liveth] in
me he is expressly denying himself, and one can associate his
immortality with the saying no one hath ascended into
heaven, save he which came down from heaven, even the Son
of (the) Man which is in heaven. So, while there is a sense in
which one can speak of mans immortal soul, I think that in
view of the fact that men arc most unconscious of the
ambiguity of the word psyche and still more unaware of the
pejorative implications of the word psychikos, and the fact that
in these days men are only too ready to be lovers of their own
selves (II Tim 111, 2), it is much safer to think and speak of
our souls as mortal, and to think only of the ghost that we
give up at death as immortal. This Spirit is that in us which
knows, and cannot pass away. It is diversified by its accidents
(naturing) in Tom, Dick and Harry, but ye are all one in
Christ. The Spirit is not even hypothetically destructible.
I am so glad to know that after your 18 months grind you
are now really enjoying its fruits. It is, indeed, absolutely
indispensable to learn to think in Sanskrit to some extent, ie, to
be able to use certain terms directly, without putting them onto
English equivalents, no one of which can communicate their
full content; and as soon as one can do this (however many
aids one still needs in continuous reading) one begins at once
to see a great deal that had otherwise been overlooked.
I have been losing time lately by a cold that saps ones
energy; and besides that is seems impossible to cope with half
the things I ought to be doing.
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England, identified p. 20.
To PROFESSOR JOSEPH L. MCNAMARA
May 7, 1943
Dear' Dr McNamara:
Many thanks for your letter and appreciation. As to the main
question, is it not one of the relation of the One to the Many?
As to this, He is one as he is in himself, but many as he is his
children. Put down a dot on paper; assume it to be the centre
of a circle. Evidently the radii of such a circle cannot be without
the centre, but it can be without them, both before they are
drawn and after they are rubbed out; evidently, then, the radii
are less essential than the centre in which all participate.
Individuality, the psycho-physical entity, is a process rather
than an essence. It includes consciousness, ic, perception,
etc. All this is a means, not an end in itself (is it not so, indeed,
in our own experience, whenever a man devotes himself
entirely to any end beyond this self s advantage?) In this sense,
individuality would appear to persist throughout the states
of being under the sun, ie, within the cosmos; it always
implies some degree of limitation, of course. What it means to
be free of all such limitation is ineffable; but a becoming more
cannot be equated with an annihilation of the original less. It is
the same awareness of being that says J am, and that having
outgrown that stage can say J am (yet not I, but . . .).
The individuality becomes an evil only when we make it an
end in itself, rather than a tool or means to the Inner Man who
wears it. When it serves him, like a well trained horse, or as
in the puppet symbolism, then indeed one can think of it as
sanctified; and each of the two selves lends itself to the
other.
As to rebirth. If we are thinking of births on this earth
and in general, we can only say that rebirth is of the immanent
Self, the ultimate reality of every mans Inner man. But you
have the individual in mind. This individual dies and is reborn
every moment, and by analogy should be reborn after the
special case that we call death or decease. If so, still as an
individual, until the regular process of rising on stepping
stones of our dead selves leaves us with awareness of being the
Self itself of all beingsthe last rebirth (regeneration).
This is not, of course, a complete answer. Nobody is a
body of which nothing can be affirmed; free from all limiting
affirmations (de-ftni-tions). I think the surviving identity to
which you cling is simply that of the valid and indefeasible
awareness of essenceThat art thou, where art implies
essence.
I felt a little prejudice against The Return of the Hero, at first,
as being a literary treatment of traditional material, the work of
a literateur. But I think it is beautifully done, and like it; it
seems to me a legitimate development of the material,
without distortion; and there is much excellent doctrine voiced
by Oisin, whose account of Tirnanog is as good a descrip
tion of heaven as one could have got (where all description
must be symbolic). Thanks for sending it.
In the May CA T . . . sent you, do read Margaret Mead. . . .
Jospch L. McNamara, Roslindale, Massachusetts, USA.
The Return of the Hero, a novel by Darrell Figgis, New York, 1930.
C A T = Catholic Art Journal.
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Sir:
In the July issue of J P, p 371, Karl Schmidt referring to the
expression master of myself implies that this is an inexplicit
and indeterminate conception. It is, on the contrary, explicit in
the traditional philosophy that there are two in us, and what
they arc. I need only cite Plato, Republic 604D; IiCor IV, 16, is
qui forts est\ St Thomas Aquinas, SumTheol II-II.26.4, inhomitte
duosunt, scilicet naturaspiritualis et naturacorporalis; and call to
mind the Indian (Brahmanical and Buddhist) doctrine of the
two selves, mortal and immortal, that dwell together in us. In
all these literatures the natures and character of the two selves
arc treated at great length, and the importance of the resolution
of their inner conflict emphasized; no man being at pcace with
himself until an agreement has been readied as to which shall
rule. In this philosophy we are unfrec to the extent that our
willing is determined by the desires of the outer man, and free
to the extent that the outer man has learnt to act, not for
himself, but as the agent of the inner man, our real Self.
It is hardly true, then to propound that The saying does not
comit itself* to the statement that there arc two in us, or
explain what these two are. Further, innumerable phrases still
current in English preserve the doctrine of the two selves; for
example, such as self-control, self-composure, conscien
ce, self-possession. It is in connection with self-
government that Plato points out that there must be two in us;
since the same thing cannot function both actively and
passively at the same time and in the same connection.
Yours very truly,
The two passages that follow are taken from AKCs manu
script notes or from other letters, and are included here for the
bearing they have on the two in us.
We are never told that the mutable soul is immortal in the same
way that God is immortal, but only in a certain way
(secundum quemdam modum, St Augustine, Ep 166, 21-31).
Quomodo? in one way only, viz, by continuing to become;
since thus it can always leave behind it a new and other nature
to replace the old Plato, Symposium, 207D). It is incorrect to
speak of the soul indiscriminately as immortal, just as it is
incorrect to call anyone a genius; man has an immortal soul, as
he has a Genius, but the soul can only be immortalised by
returning to its source, that is to say by dying; and man
becomes a Genius only when he is no longer himself.
With respect to the word soul (psyche, anima, Heb nefes)
translated sometimes by life (Luke XIV, 26, and hate not
his own life also; John XII, 25: Hatcth his own life in the
world). Do not forget that this world usually denotes the
animal sentient principle only (Strong, Concordance, Gk
dictionary, p 79) and is sharply to be distinguished from the
Spirit (pneuma), spiritus, Heb ruah, as in Heb XIV, 12: the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit. In place of the word
spirit can be used such expressions as Soul of the soul (so
Philo); the word soul is ambiguous, and before the usage
became precise we often find soul employed (as in Plato)
where spirit must be understood. In any case, one must
always consider the context; in general the Gospels are not at all
enthusiastic about the kind of soul that the psychologist is
concerned about, and Jungs man in search of a soul is
looking for something that the religions want to have done
with once and for all.
To THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
1939
Sir:
. . . no valid distinction can be drawn between jivan-mukti
and videha mukti. . . . That deliverance can be obtained in the
earthly life as in every other state docs not mean that it is with
earthly mind-ways that perfection can be obtained; it means
that these can be discarded now. That art thou was never said
of this man as he is in himself. And if the bodily functions of
the vimutto persist, this is a reality rather for others than for
him, who is no longer alive in the common sense, but much
rather Rumis dead man walking.
The latter excerpt was part of a letter of AKC in response to a commu
nication from Mrs C. A. F. Rhys David; see journal of the American Oriental
Society, vol LXIX, pp. 110-11, for the full exchange.
To FATHER MARTIN C. DARCY, SJ
April 20, 1947
Dear Father DArcy:
Writing recently to a Roman Catholic friend in England, I
expressed myself as very much disappointed in your Mind and
Heart of Love not only becausc it treats the subject only from the
standpoint of the European tradition, ignoring the enormous
Sufi and Indian literature on the subject (let me mention only
Dara Shikuhs equation of ishq with maya, and Rumis What
is love? Thou shalt know when thou becomest me'*!) but more
especially with reference to Chapter VII, Anima and Animus,
m which the traditional values of these terms are completely
ignored, which seemed to me very strange in a Jesuit author.
You begin with a ridiculous parable from Claudel, who is
nothing but a pseudomystic, and has no idea of the correct use
of theological terms. For anima and animus, William of
Thierrys Golden Epistle, pp 50 and 51, is a good source; he
says, eg, For while it is yet anima, it lightly becometh
effeminate, even to being fleshy, but animus ttel spiritus hath no
thoughts of anything save of the manly and the spiritual, and
also that this mens vel spiritus is precisely the imagoDei in us. For
the terms anima and animus earlier, see Cicero, De nat deorum
III. 14, 36; Acad II.7.22; Tusc 1.22.52, Cumigitur noscetedicit, hoc
dicit, nosceanimumtuum, and V. 13.38: Cumdecerptusex mente
divina. Also Accidius, Trag 296, Sapimus animo, fruima anima,
sineanimo, animaest debilis. Jung, of course, uses the terms in a
special way of his own, not incorrect in itself, but not in
accordance with the traditional meanings.
Obviously, the animus vel spiritus is the Soul of the soul (a
phrase that for Philo and the Sufus often paraphrases spirit)
[and] is the proper object of Self-love, as in St Thomas
Aquinas, Sum Theol II-II.26.4: a man out of charity, ought to
love himself more than he loves any other person . . . more
than his neighbour.
This tradition of true Self-love (the antithesis of Self-
love = selfishness) runs back to Aristotle, Plato, and Euripides
(Helen 999); in the East, cf Brhadaranyaka Upanishad IV.5, for
which there is an exact parallel in Plato, Lysis 219D - 220B.
That you ignore the traditional meanings of the terms animus and
anima seems to me to take all the sense out of your deprecation
of wissenschaftliche distinctions on p 16, and seems to me to
show that such distinctions cannot be ignored without resultant
confusion, such as one sees in Claudel, in whose parable animas
SECRET LOVE CAN ONLY BE THE WORLD1.
I cannot but wonder, too, where you get your information
about the swastika (p 50) as an emblem of resignation; such
rash statements ought never to be made without full discussion
and citation of authorities, if any. The swastika is a solar
symbol. Also on p 189, you confuse suttee (a formal sacrifice)
with mere suicide, which last is condemned by all traditions; cf
Evola, Rivolta contra il mondo moderno, chapter on Uomo e
donna.
Yours very sincerely,
Father Martin DArcy, S J, sometime master of Campion Hall, Oxford and
later head of the Jesuits in England. In his day, he was one of the more
popular ecclesiastical authors, and wrote The Mind and Heart of Love,
London, 1947. Paul L. Claudel, French poet and diplomat.
Rivolta contro il mondo moderno, Jacques Evola, 1934. This chapter was
translated by Zlata Llamas (Dona Luisa) Coomarawamy, AKCs wife,
and published as Man and Woman in The Visva-Bharati Quarterly, vol V, pt
iv, Feb-April 1940, with a brief introduction by AKC.
William of St Thierry, The Golden Epistle of Abbot William of St Thierry,
translated by Walter Shewring, and published in 1930.
To FATHER MARTIN C. DARCY, SJ
May 2, 1947
Dear Father DArcy:
Many thanks for your kind letter in reply to mine. I read it
very carefully. As regards the main point, I cannot but retain
my strong objection to the use of established terms in new
senses; at the least, unless the writer makes it perfectly dear that
he knows what he is doing, and states in so many words that he
is using the terms in a new sense. Thus when Jung calls anima
the soul-image as envisioned by men and animus the
soul-image as envisaged by women, he has a right to express
his concept, but not the right to use these terms in a way that
distorts their well-known meanings, according to whichman
consisting of body, soul and spiritanima is soul and animus
spirit.
When you say you were aware of this, but could not
acccpt the traditional usage, would it not have been better to
make this clear, instead of leaving the reader to wonder
whether or not you were awareas Claudel, whom you seem
to quote with approval, certainly cannot have been. It seems to
me that if you are writing as a priest, you have no right to say
you cannot accept the terms of traditional theology; that you
might do if writing as an independent psychologist, expressing
individual opinion. I am not a priest, still I will not take such
liberties; where there is a consensus of doctrine on the part of
philosophers and theologians throughout many ccnturics, and
in the diverse traditions, I regard it as primary business to
understand, and in turn to write as an exegctc, concerned with
the transmission of true doctrine. In any case, it is only when
one adheres to the precise meanings of theological terms both
in East and West that one can make any valid or fruitful
comparisons.
I quoted Cicero, not as a primary source, but as illustrating
usage. In your reply, you do not take notice of my further
citation of William of Thierry, whose usage is the same and
whose expressions are animus vel spiritus, and mens vel spiritus.
When St Thomas Aquinas says that it is a mans primary duty,
in charity, to love himself, ie, his Inner Man (or as Philo and
Plato would have said, the Man in this man), this is the same
as to say that the animus in cvcryman is the anima's true love:
therefore it was that I said that, if in Claudels (to me silly)
parable, anima is false to animus, she must be secretly loving the
world, ie, herself, and her life in this world (John XII, 25).
Philos psyche psyches, like the Islamic jan-i-jan, and the
Sanskrit atmanotma (self of the self, used in apposition to
netr = hegemonikon) is simply another equivalent of Spirit,
and has specific use when it is desired to avoid the ambiguity of
the word soul which (as you know) is used in various senses,
some pejorative. It seems to me that all these and other
technical terms as scintilla animae (funkelein, opiother, apospasma)
etc, have always been used clearly and intelligibly. At any rate, I
am accustomed to think in these terms, and in those of their
Indian and Islamic equivalents. Your own mentality is singular
ly acute, and when I spoke of disappointment it was because
I had expected from you a precise and understanding use of the
technical terms in which the great philosophers and theologians
have always thought. But when you say the so-called
tradition is partly bogus, these sound like the words of a
Protestant denouncing Papish mumcry. You ask for the
benefit of the doubt, so in this case, I shall assume you did not
quite mean what the words seem to say.
As regards East and West generally: it is useless to make
comparisons or pass any judgements unless one knows both
traditions in their sources. Existing translations are of very
varying quality, and on the whole arc for the most part vitiated
by the fact of having been made by rationalists, excellent
linguists, but themselves without religious experience and at
the same time quite ignorant of the proper Greek, Latin or
English equivalents of the metaphysical terms that occur in the
contexts from which they translate.
To control such versions one must have at least some
knowledge of the languages involved, oneself. Nevertheless, it
has been a far too common practise of Christian writers to cite,
eg, Sanskrit terms such as nirvana or maya in distorted senses,
without any knowledge of the etymology of the terms or the
contexts in which they arc used. Nirvana, for example, one finds
referred to as an emptiness or annihilation (incidentally,
in this connection, Buddhaghosa reminds us that whenever
such a word as empty occurs in a given context, we must ask
ourselves empty of what?as if, too, there were no
Christian literature in which the Godhead is spoken of as a
desert, or nihill). Nirvana, then, is spoken of as annihila
tion, regardless of the fact that it was a state realized by the
Buddha when a comparatively young man, and that he lived a
long, full and active life for very many years thereafter. If he
refused to define the nature of the being or non-being after
death of one who like himself had realized Nirvana in this life
(the word means literally despiration and implies what
Angelus Silesius meant by his Stirb ehe du stirbst, and
Muhammed by his Die before you die) it is because, as a
Christian might have expressed it, such are dead and buried in
the Godhead, or their life is hid in God; of Whom, in
accordance with the via negativa, nothing true can be said except
negatively. Nirva (the verb) corresponds to . . . the two
English senses of the expression to be finished, all perfection
involving a kind of death, inasmuch as the attainment of being
implies the cessation of process of becoming, and in the same
way that for one who is all in fact there is nothing more that
need be done. Further, Nirvana has applications even in
secular contexts: thus a womans marriage to an ideal
husband is referred to as a nirvana; in this case, the death is
that of the maiden who isnomore, ie, has died as such, when
she enters into the new state of being, that of woman and wife.
So too in the successive stages of the training of a royal stallion
(a common analogy of the training of a disciple), each is
referred to as a nirvana, until finally the colt is no more and the
stallion remains. I have given this example at length because it
very well illustrates the absolute necessity of knowing the
original sources if one is to cite the technical terms of another
religion than ones own. I follow this rule myself, and hardly
ever quote translations (even of the New Testament) from
Greek without considering the original text and the usage of
the terms in question in other contexts.
As regards the svastika , I think it a pity that you quoted King
on the subject at all; it is a good thing that you did not use the
svastika as a symbol of passive love. Incidentally, his queer
spellings of Indian words (Saeti for Sakti, Vichnaivas for
Vaishnavas) are an indication of the vagueness of his scho
larship.
I shall send on your letter, or a copy, to my R. C. friend
whom I spoke of. He has learnt Sanskrit recently for the
purpose of making more accurate correlation with Christian
doctrines, and tells me how much more he now finds in the
Bhagavad Gita than he has been able to get from any translation.
On the whole, I am inclined to think that in the interests of
truth (and that concerns us all, since Truth has been a name
of God alike in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism)
one should refrain from making any, especially any pejorative
statements about other religions unless one knows their
literature almost as well as one knows those of ones own.
Very sincerely,
Father Martin Cyril DArcy, S. J., as above.
To FATHER MARTIN C. DARCY, SJ
May 27, 1947
Dear Father DArcy:
It is no doubt true that we take different views of the full
meaning of the word tradition, but this would not affect the
criticism I had to make of your use of the terms Anima and
Animus; my point there had to do only with the Western, ie,
classical and Christain tradition, and in fact, with what might
be called the lexicographical tradition. My objection was also to
your use of Claudel, and citations from King, both of whom I
can only regard as misty mentalities.
I must confess that I see no difficulty whatever in under
standing the two contrasting senses in which the expression
self-love is used, in classical, Christain and Eastern contexts
equally.
What I do not understand is how you can form a judgement
of the validity of my equivalents, unless you are, as I am,
familiar with both original sources and contexts. I am quite aware
of the necessity for distinguishing between real and apparent
equivalents; nevertheless, the latter are far too many to be
ignored. Moreover, no one denied that there are some truths
enunciated in other than the Christian religionand as St
Ambrose says, Whatever is true, by whomsoever it has been said,
is from the Holy Ghost, and St Thomas Aquinas (II Sent disp
28, q i, a 4 and 4) grants the possibility of a divine inspiration
even of barbarians.
I know there is nothing to be gained by treating these
problems as a matter of argument between ourselves. What
seems to me clear, however, is that an Oriental scholar seeking
further information about the Christian doctrine of love could
not safely rely on what you have said.
I duly sent a copy of your first letter to my R. C. friend in
England and will only quote from his reply:
Consulting experts on Eastern thought will not do. One
should be ashamed to speak about a tradition with scriptures
as ancient as ones own without a thorough familiarity with
originals. Otherwise ones only valid lineand theologically
it can be very usefulis to show why such and such a
conception (whether or not anyone really uses it in the way
one thinks) is wrong.
This was, approximately, the point of the latter part of my
preceeding letter.
Martin Cyril DArcy, SJ, as above.
Bernard Kelly, identified p. 20.
To FATHER GERALD VANN, OP
July 12, 1947
Dear Brother Vann:
Many thanks for your kind letter and the book. There is little
or nothing in the latter I cannot agree with, or could not
support from other sources, beginning with the praise of what
St Thomas Aquinas calls the best form of the activc life,
teaching, and all that Plato means by the illuminated philo
sophers duty to return to the cavein actionbut otherwise
minded than before. Apropos of the Eternal Now (p 193), I
think my TimeandEternity (an exposition of the doctrine from
Greek, Indian, Islamic and Christian sources) will interest you.
I hcartedly agree with your Remember the Mass . . . blessed
(on p 140). The Mass is like the Vedic sacrifice, a symbolic
personal immolation; and though it was undertaken only by the
three upper castes, it was not for their own good alone, for:
As hungry children sit around
About their mother here in life,
E'en so all beings sit around
The Agnohotra sacrifice.
Chandogya upanishad V.24.4
For, indeed, the creatures who may not take part in Sacrifice
arc forlorn; and therefore he makes those creatures here on
earth that are not forlorn, take part in it: behind the men are
the beasts, and behind the Gods arc the birds, the plants and
the trees; and thus all that here exists is made to participate in
the sacrifice.
Satapatha Brahmana 1.5, 2.4
I am glad you have nothing to say in this book about other
religions, of which so few Christian apologists have any
first-hand knowledge. In exegesis, I think one should cite other
traditions only when one knows them first-hand, and only
when they throw light on the point to be made. My Roman
Catholic friend in England who has learnt Sanskrit lately
expressly in order to see for himself what is really said in the
Sanskrit scriptures writes to me (and here I agree with him
heartily):
Consulting experts on Eastern thought will not do. One
should be ashamed to speak about a tradition with scriptures
as ancient as ones own without a thorough familiarity with
originals. Otherwise ones only valid lineand theologically
it can be very usefulis to show why such and such a
conception (whether or not anyone really uses it in the way
one thinks) is wrong.
It must always be borne in mind that the greater part of the
experts have been rationalists who, however learned, do not
know the language in which to express the metaphysical
conceptions to which, indeed, they are antagonistic by tem
perament and training.
There are some other Christian apologists who, like Father
DArcy, SJ (Mind and Heart of Love, ch vii) even make a hash of
their own terminology. I am referring ta Father DArcys abuse
of the terms anima and animus, and his citation as authority such
pscudo-mystics as Claudel. Jung, too, misuses these terms,
though in a better way, since he has something to say with his
new meanings. Wilhelm in TheSecret of theGolden Flower uses
them correctly. I feel that all exegesis and apology demands the
most scrupulous scholarship of which one is capable; since the
ultimate subject is One to whom the Christian and so many
other religions have given the name of Truth.
Very sincerely,
Father Gerald Vann, OP, Blackfriars School, Laxton. England.
The Divine Pity, London, 1947.
The Secret of the Golden Flower, Richard Wilhelm and Carl G. Jung, London,
1932.
To BERNARD KELLY
April 9, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
I just obtained a copy of DArcys MindandHeart of Love, and
must say that 1 find it disappointing, not to say even a little
nasty, as well as ignorant (not only of eastern matters) in a
way surprising indeed for a Jesuit. I say this more especially
with reference to Chapter vii, Animus and Anima; he begins
with a ridiculous parable from Claudel, who is nothing but a
pscudomystic and quite ignorant of the traditional values of the
terms animus and anima, for which William of St Thierrys
Golden Epistle, 50, 51, is the best source. William says For
while it is yet anima, it lightly bccomcth effeminate, even to
being fleshy; but animus vel spiritus hath no thoughts of
anything save of the manly and the spiritual; and this mens vel
spiritus is precisely the imagoDei in us. Obviously then, the
animus is the Soul of the soul, the proper object of true Self
love as in St Thomas Aquinas, SumTheol II-II.26.4: a man,
out of charity, ought to love himself more than he loves any
other person . . . more than his neighbour, and the tradition
of Self love running back to Aristotle, Plato and Euripides in
the West; and as in BU IV.5, for which there is a very close
parallel in Lysis 219D220B. I do not know whether the actual
use of the terms anima and animus can be traccd further back
than Ciccro, De nat deorum III. 14.36 (cf Acad II.7.22, animus as
the seat of perceptions, ie, scientific concepts). Jung, of
course uses the terms in a special way, not incorrect in itself,
but at the same time not in accordance with the traditional
meanings. DArcy seems quite unaware of all this, and this
makes nonsense of his deprecation of "wissenschaftliche distinc
tions, p 16). In other words, he is not transmitting dogma, but
merely thinking sloppily.
Turning to our own affairs, as regards the Trinity: Eckhart
calls this an arrangement of God, and indeed I can only think
of it as one of many possible formulations of relations in
God. Moreover, the doctrinc is strictly speaking smriti rather
than sruti. Also, I cannot quite see how the Unity of the Three
docs not, in a sense, make a fourth, ie, a One as logically
transcending the Trinity with reference to which St Thomas
himself says Wc cannot say the only God, because deity is
common to several. I think the closest comparisons must be
based on MU IV.4,5 (Agni, Vayu, Aditya as forms of Brahma
or Purusha).
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, identified p. 20.
BU = Brhadaranyaka Upanishad
MU = Maitri Upanishad
Sruti = the highest degree of revelation in Hinduism, knowledge by
identification. The Vedas, including the Upanishads, are considered sruti.
Smriti = a lower degree of revelation, from reflection on the sruti; among
such texts arc the Epics and usually the Bhagavad Gita. Analogous rankings in
Christianity would be the Gospels (sruti) and the Pauline Epistles (smriti).
To BERNARD KELLY
August 6, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Yours ofjuly 16:1have had in mind to write on the Use and
Abuse of the terms anima and animus, but 1) I must not
undertake any new tasks, but conserve energy to finish ones
begun (doctors orders!), and 2) I think you could do it better. I
think it would be useful to do this, rather than write a critique
of DArcy in a more general way. But you would have to read
and refer to DArcys Ch vii at least. I now add such references
as I have come across, under the two headings of use and absue:
USE: W of Thierry, Golden Epistle 50, 51, animus vel spiritus and
mens vel animus-, Augustine, Deordine 1.1.3, qui tamen ut se
noscat, magnaopus habet consuetudinerecendi asensibus (corporali-
bus), to be added from the Retractio, et animuminseipsum
colligendi atqueinseipsoretinendi\ probably derived from Cicero,
Tusc 1.22.52, nequenoscorporasumus. Cumigiturenoscetedicit,
hocdicit, nosceanimumtuum: cf 5.13.38, humanus animus decerptus
ex mentedivina\ Varro, Men 32, inreliquocorporeabhoc fente
diffusaest anima, hinc animus adintelligentiamtributus (cf pene
passages cited in Rgveda 10.90.1.. . .); Enneads 3.8.10; Ruys-
brock, Adornment of theSpiritual Marriage, c 35; Epictetus,
3.8.18; Shamsi-Tabriz, Ode XII in Nicholson, 1938; Philo,
Prov 1.336 . . .; Det 83 . . .; Fug 1.95f and 182; Enneads 6.8.9.
Accidius, Trag 296, sapimus animo, fruimur anima, sineanimo,
animaest debilis; Epicurus, Derer nat, C 3: Now I say that
Mind (animus) and Soul (anima) are held in union one with the
other, and form of themselves a single nature, but that the
head, as it were, and Lord in the whole body is the counsel
(consilium) that we call Mind (animus) or Understanding
(mens). . . . The rest of the Soul (anima), spread abroad
throughout the body, obeys and is moved at the will and
inclination of the Understanding (mens); and notably Wilhelm,
Secret of theGolden Flower, p 73, In the personal bodily
existence of the individualities, a po soul (or anima) and a hun
soul (or animus). All during the life of the individual these two
are in conflict, each striving for mastery (psychomachy!). At
death they separate and go different ways (like nefes and ruah in
the Old Testament = psyche and pneuma in the New Testament,
eg, Heb IV, 12). The anima sinks to earth as kuei (dust to
dust), a ghost-being (psychic residue). The animus rises and
becomes shen, a revealing spirit of God (daimon, yaksa). Shen
may in time return to Tao. . . . Also Augustine, De ordine
2.34: animus will be offended by the eyes, if the latter are
attracted by falsity attractively presented. (A few of the above
references arc merely taken from the Latin dictionary, but most
I have seen).
ABUSE: DArcy, loccit; Jung, Psychological Types, 1923, p 595:
If, therefore, we speak of the anima of a man, we must
logically speak of the animus of a woman, if we arc to give the
soul of a woman its right name, and 596-7: With men the
soul, ic, the atiima, is usually figured by the unconscious in the
person of a woman; with women it is a man; and For a man,
a woman is best fitted to be the bearer of his soul-image, by
virtue of the womanly quality of his soul; similarly a man, in
the case of a woman (for him, also, persona = outer attitude
and soul = inner attitude!). Jung has a real idea to express,
eg, as of Beatrice as Dantes soul-imagebut his is a reckless
abuse of terms; he does not realise that anima and animus are
two in us, is quiforis est and is qui intus est, whether we are
men or women! Animus in Latin represents the daimon [?]
or pneuma [?], ic, conscientia that Socratcs and Aristotle called
infallible; the nous [?] within you. Homo vivitur ingenio, coetera
mortis sunt! So 1charge you to write on anima and animus. (I
forgot to add, you will find the terms misused also by E. I.
Watkinwho ought to know betterin The Wind and the Rain,
3, 1947, pp 179-84, following DArcy and Jung. If all these
errors are not pointed out soon, we shall never be able to catch
up with them). I should add also that while Jung almost always
rejects metaphysics and reduces it to psychology, in Two
Essays on Analytical Psychology, 1928, ch 4, p 268, Jung does
rightly use the terms Ego and Self, and the latter being
unknowable (in the sense that the eye cannot sec itself) and
in that passage is a metaphysician in spite of himself.
About purusa and prakrti = mayin and maya, these are for me
St Thomas Aquinas principium conjunctum from which the Son
proceedsNature being that Nature by which the Father
begats (Damascene, Defide orth 1.18, as in Sum Theol I-I.45.5):
*I made myself a mother of whom to be born. . . . That
nature, to wit, which created all others (Augustine, Contra V
HaerV = De Trin XIV, 9) = Natura naturans, Creatrix Iniversa-
lis, Deus (sic, in Index to Turin 1932 cd of Sum Theol). Cf
Pancavimsa Br VII.6.1 to 9 (in 6, eldest son = Agni, see JUB
2.25. Brhati = Vac = mother of Brhat\ you will find this PBr
passage very interesting from the standpoint of filial proces
sion.
Ex necessitate naturae = necessitas infallibilitatis, I presume; just
as it is nature (necessity) of light to illuminate; it seems to be
erroneous to think of such a necessity as any limitation of
freedom (what is freedom but to be free to act in
accordance with ones own nature?).
Regarding proportion of natura naturans to natura naturata: as
Guenon would word it, God in act implies the realisation of
infinite possibility (this would not include the creation of
non-entities like the horns of a harc or son of a barren
woman, of course, which would involve a violation of natura
naturans); but infinite possibility has two aspects, including
both the possibilities of manifestation, and things that arc not
possibilities of manifestation (the latter = arcana, known to
Cherubim, but to us only by analogy at best). It would seem to
me that the proportion between the possibilities of manifesta
tion and the actuality of all things in time and space would be
exact; if that were all, it would involve a kind of pantheism, but
that is not all.
I dont seem to know Gabriel Thierys Eckhart. But I have 12
fasicules of the magnificent Stuttgart edition, still in progress,
of all the Latin and German works of Eckhart; this is really a
splendid piece of work!
I do think the Thomist duo sunt in homine is to be taken
seriously, as referring to is qui foris est and is qui intus est; indeed,
without some such concept of a duality the notion of a
psychomachy, internal conflict, would be meaningless. The
two would seem to be the trace of the Divine Biunity of
Essence and Natureone in Him but distinct in us. Tho\ as
Hermes says, Not that the One is two, but that the two are
One: which it is for us to restore and realise by resolution of
the conflict in conscnt of wills.
This is all I can manage for today.
Affectionately,
Bernard Kelly, identified p. 20.
The romanized Greek words followed by bracketed question marks, p. 148.
above, were added provisionally by the editors as the originals were either
illegible or missing in the copy available to the editors. This letter,
incidentally, can serve as a not untypical example of the complexity that one
occasionally finds in AKCs writing, particularly in some of his later papers.
To BERNARD KELLY
August 19, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
I am so happy to hear that you will take up the anima-animus
job.
Calands Pancavimsa Brahmana is Bibliotheca Indica no 255,
Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1931; Wilhelm, Secret of the Golden
Flower is Kegan Paul, London, 1932. Incidentally, the Royal
Asiatic Society (74 Grosvenor St, London WC1) might be more
convenient than the British Museum for looking up many
things, becausc of its smaller size.
Re Golden Flower, it is Wilhelms part to which I referred;
Jungs is properly dealt with in a Preau, La Fleur dor et le
Taoisme sans Tao, Paris, circa 1932 (based on the German
edition of Wilhelm and Jung, 1929), esp p 49:
. . . que cct auteur (Jung) parle a plusiers reprises du Soi (das
Sclbst) quil oppose au moi (das ich), ne peut faire impression
sur personne. Aussi longtcmps quil na pas dit que ce Soi
est un tcrminaison de lEsprit primordial, quil est dordre
universcl et identiquc au Grand Un, il na rein dit; et il
reste expose a lobjection que ce quil y a de vcritablement
intercssant dans la pcnsec orientalc du Taoisme, de celle sans
laquelle lidec du Rctour devient inintelligible.
In The Secret . . . itself, Jung on p 117 repeats his misuse of the
term animus, remarking (without giving any source) mulier non
habet animan sed animum. I wonder if he even knows that the
word animus has a history! Incidentally, in The Secret . .
throughout for mandala read mandala.
I am sending you Recollection. . . .
I have of the Stuttgart Eckhart, the Lateinische Werke I, 1-160
(chiefly Expositio Libri Genesis; III, 1-240 (Expositio S Ev sec
Joannem)-, IV- 1-240 (Sermones); and V, 1-128 (Miscellaneous
tracts). A few of these I have obtained since the war.
In my Loathly Bride, p 402, note 3 has bearing on animus
as lawful husband of anima.
I believe this is all I can add at present.
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England.
To BERNARD KELLY
August 29, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
I suppose the two in us are respectively the substantial and
the actual forma of the soul, forma corresponding to eidos in
Phaedo 79, A & B, Timaeus 90 A. I feel quite proud to have you
ask me for a Thomistic reference! viz, Sum Theol II-II.26.4:
Repondeo dicendum guod in hominis duo sunt, scilicet natura
spiritualis et natura corporalis; the meaning is quite dear from the
rest of the context, which deals with mans first duty to love,
after God, seipsum secundum spiritualem naturamHomo seipsum
magis ex charitate diligere tenetur, quam proximum being the same
as our modern Charity begins at home (though we arc apt to
interpret this aphorism cynically!). Some of the older references
for self-love = love of Self as distinguished from self, are:
Hermes Lib 4.6.B (cf Scott, Hermetica 2.145), Aristotle, Nich
Ethics 9.8 (cf Mag Mor II.xi,xiii,xiv). On true Self-love, BU 4.5
(cf also 2.4) like Plato, Lysis 219D-220B!; Platonic love as
for Ficino (see Kristeller, pp 279-287), BU 1.4.8; cf Augustine
cited in Dent edition of Paradisco, p 384). Plato, Republic 621C,
Phaedo 115B (care for our Self = care for others), Laws 731E
and (a very impressive context) Euripides, Helen 999. Cf
Context of Homer and Hesiod 320B. That there two in
us = Plato Rep 604B . . . (f Phaedo 79 A,B; Timaeus 89D).
Why must be?, because, to quote at greater length, where
there are two opposite impulses in a man at the same time about
the same thing, we say there must be two in us; and similarly
436B, and many passages on internal conflict, eg, Rep 431 A,B,
439, 440, and notably Aristotle Met V.3.8-9 (1005B) the most
certain of all principles, that it is impossible for the same
property at once belong and not to belong to the same thing in
the same relationall resumed in St Aquinas Sum Theol
1.93.5: nil agit in seipsum.
Charity begins at home"; note that what is said in the New
Testament about the indwelling Spirit (eg, I Cor 3, 16: to
pneuma tou theou oikei en hurnin is said of the immanent Daimon
in Platonic and other Greek sources (eg, Timaeus 90C. . . .
Many, many other references for to pneuma = Socratic
daimon = conscience.
In other words the whole problem is involved in the
psychomachy, and is only resolved when a man has made his
peace with him-Self (cf result in Homer-Hesiod 320B and
AA2.3.7). I have many pages of references for two in us, and
for psychomachy!
Philos Soul of the soul in Heres 55 is the hegemonikon part,
the divine pneuma as distinguished from the blood-soul; and
Opif 66 = nous. Heres 55: The word soul is used in two
senses, with reference either to the soul as a whole or to its
dominant part, which latter is, properly speaking, the Soul of
the soul (= MU 6.7, atmanotma netamrtakhyanetr being
precisely hegemonikos. In general, for the two in us: John
3,36, II Cor 4, 16, SumTheol 1.75.4; CU 8.12; MU 3.2; JB 1.17
(idvyatma), Hermes 1.15, and Ascl 1; Mark 8, 34; Prasna Up 6.3,
etc, etc.
Again, Soul of the soul as hegemonikon = Dhammapada
380, atta hi attano natho atta higati . . ., cf ib 160 (in PTS Minor
Anthologies . . . I, p 124 and 56). Pali atta = Sanskrit atman.
Guillaume de Thierry, De contemplando Dei 7.15: Tu te ipsum
amas in nobis, et nos in te, cum te per se amamus, et in terntum
tibi unimur, in quantum te amare meremus.
This is about all I can manage for now.
With kindest regards,
PS: Another ref for animus: Emperor Julians last words
animum . . . immaculatum conservavi. I think you have enough
references for the history of the word animus to be able to deal
adequately with its modern misuse.
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England, identified p. 20.
To BERNARD KELLY
September 8, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Notably in Heb 4, 12, St Paul distinguishes the two in us.
So often St Augustine distinguishes what is mortal and mutable
in us from what is immutable and immortal, the latter Intellect;
for St Thomas Aquinas it is similarly the intellectual virtues
that survive. But also (with Plato, etc) one can speak of the
whole soul or of its parts; our business is one of integration,
to restore the unity auto kath' eauton. I agree it is the same to say
animus is anima considered according to her spiritual nature, as
to say that animus is the spiritual part of the soul. It is in so far
as we are divided against ourselves (psychomachy, schizophre
nia) that we must speak of parts. In origin, anima is more than
the animating principle; rather, as such, she is an extension of
the Spirit, his ancilla, from whom he receives reports of the
sensible worldand when she is purified, his fitting bride. In
the Sum Theol 1.45.6, guod dominandogubernet at vurlicetguae sunt
creata. . . .it is really the Spirit that quicken every life.
I dont think you should think of Guenons initiatory
succession as even possibly diabolical; dont forget how serious
he is, and how he himself distinguishes true from counter
initiation. Baptism, qua new birth was certainly originally an
initiation, though now rather more like a consecration only.*
Obviously no great urgency about Art and Thought, Vol II,
since even Vol I is still in press. Bharatan Iyers address is:
Office of the Accountant General, Rangoon, Burma. It would
certainly please me to have your anima-animus as your
contribution, but I hardly suppose a second volume could
appear before the end of 1948, which seems far off.
I will write to Iyer soon, and commend your article to him; I
am just completing a piece on Athena and Hcphaistos as
cooperators in the Greek concept of creative art, but divorced
in industrial production.
Affectionately,
PS: I note: Jacques Maritain, A New Approach to God, says in
the inner stimulation of culture, it is through Christian
philosophy, in addition to the irrefragable ontological truth
promulgated by every great religion, that the new civilization
will be spurred. That is how I see the great religions
working together, but I hardly expected it from him! (In Our
Emergent Civilization, ed by R. N. Anshen, New York, 1947,
p 288).
* Baptism, assuming the integrity of the rite, is an initiation now if ever it
was; however, it doubtless remains virtual more frequently now than in
former times, due to the progressive deterioration of the cycle.
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England.
Art and Thought, festschrift issued in honor of Dr Coomaraswamy on the
occasion of his seventieth birthday; edited by K. Bharatha Iyer, London,
1947. A second volume was planned but was never realized.
Jacques Maritain, French Thomist philosopher, convert to Roman Catholic
ism as a young man; became leading neo-Thomist and taught at Paris,
Princeton and Toronto.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
March 6, 1943
Sir,
1should like to say a few words on Gens review of a book by
Nicodemus in your issue of December 23rd, 1943. As to
being and becoming (essence and existence) this is indeed a
vital distinction with which everyone has been concernedin
the Western world from Plato onwards, as well as in the East.
What is unorthodox is to treat the two as alternatives. The
Supreme Identity is of both; the single essence with two natures
is of a being that becomes, and of a becoming that is of being.
To argue for a becoming only is like speaking of a significant
art of which we cannot explain the significance: to believe in a
being only is a monistic form of monophytism. The argument is
not Cogito ergo sum, but Cogito ergo ESTwe become because
He is.
Gens objection to the opposition of spirit to soul is quite
irregular. As St Paul says, the Word of God extends to the
sundering of soul and spirit; the spirit is willing (ie. wills), but
the flesh is weak. The Old Testament word for soul
(nefesh = anima) always refers to mans lower, animal and fleshy
nature; it is this soul that Christ asks us to hate, and requires
us to lose if we would save the soul of the soul, ie, spirit)
alive; and of which Meister Eckhart says that the soul must
put itself to deathas St Paul must have done, if he said truly
that I live, yet not I, but Christ in me, being thus what we
should call in India a jivan-mukta, freed here and now. This
soul, self or Ego to be overcome is the sensitive soul
(nafs, Arabic form of Hebrew nefesh) that Rumi throughout the
Mathnawi equates with the Dragon that none can overcome
without divine aid. The distinction of spirit from soul is of our
immortal form from our mortal nature, and wise indeed is he
whose philosophy like Platos is an ars moriendi\ or, in Rumis
words, has died before he dies, or in Buddhist terms, has
become a nobody.
To DAVID WHITE
September 17, 1944
Dear Mr White:
Practically the whole answer to the problem of the death of
the soul is contained in the symbolism of sowing: Except a
seed fall to the ground and die . . . It is the life of the seed that
lives. Hence St Thomas also enunciates the law, no creature
can attain a higher grade of nature without ceasing to exist,
and Eckhart: he would be what he should must cease from
being what he is. To cease from any state of being is to decease.
This death of the soul should take place, if possible, before our
physical death. Muhammeds die before you die coincides
with Angelus Silesius Stirb, ehe du stirbst. Evidently St Paul had
so died (I live, yet not I ); as we should say, he was a
jivanmukta, a freedman here and now. Jacon Boehme: Thus we
understand how a life perishes. . . . If it will not give itself up
to death, then it cannot attain any other world (ie, any other
state of being).
The intellectual preparation for self-naughting will be the
easier if with Plato, Plutarch, Buddha, etc, we already realize
that our empirical self cannot be thought of as real because
of its mutability; and so detach our sense of being from things
that are only our instruments or vehicles (physical sensibility,
mental consciousness based on observation, etc). When we
injure our body and say I cut myself, but should say my
body was cut only; to say my feelings were hurt (by an
unkind word) is more correct than to say 7 was hurt.
If the New Testament sometimes seems to speak of saving
the soul itself, you must always bear in mind the ambiguity
of the word, except where soul of the soul, immortal soul
or spirit are expressly contrasted with soul. In any
context, you must be clear which soul is used or meant.
All translations should be read with caution. I do not
recommend Yeats or Caruswould you know the truths of
Jacob Behmen, you must stand where he stood (William
Law)applies, mutatis mutandis, to the understanding of any
unfamiliar truths. By the way, there is a good edition of much
of Law by Hob-house (London . . . 1940). The best readily
available of Dionysius is the volume by Rolt (Soc for the
Promotion of Christian Knowledge) which costs only 4sh. 6.
Law says: You are under the power of no other enemy, are
held in no other captivity and want no other deliverance but
from the power of your earthly self. That self is the soul
that Christ asks us to hate, and that Rumi consistently calls
the dragon, and Philo the serpent. This snake must shed
its skin, from which it (ie, what was real in it) emerges a
new man, in a body of lightwhich is the true
resurrectionbut never if it insists upon remaining itself.
All the wordings are more or less paradoxical; but it seems to
me not hard to grasp their meaning.
I liked your review well, and hope they will publish it.
Yours sincerely,
David White was a PhD candidate at Friends University, Wichita, Kansas.
The translations referred to are W. B. Yeats and Sri Purohit Swami, The Ten
Principal Upanishads; and Paul Carus translations from the Buddhist
scriptures.
William Law, eighteenth century Anglican divine, non-juror, and spiritual
writer; influenced by Jacob Boehme. See letter to Stephen Hobhouse, p 61.
Dionysius the Areopagite: The Divine Names and the Mystical Theology,
translated by C. E. Rolt and published in 1920, 1940 and later dates by
SPCK, London.
To MRS ROGER S. FOSTER
May 13, 1946
Dear Mrs Foster:
Many thanks for your response. Jung expressly repudiates
metaphysics in Wilhelm and Jung, TheSecret of theGolden
Flower, pp 128-135, and this book was accordingly discussed
by Preau under the title of LeTaoismesansTao. On the other
hand, there can be no question but that Jungs own treatment of
the Ego and the Self in Two Essays onAnalytical Psychology,
1928, p 268 (Ego knowable, Self unknowable) is metaphysical
(literally, since he uses the words the step beyond science)
and also more like the language of traditional psychology than
that of psycho-analysis. I did at one time correspond with Dr
Jung, who used to welcome my papers on the sense of
traditional symbols, but I really gave him up after an article he
wrote about India after a three weeks visit, and which might
have been written by a Baptist missionary. However, I do of
course admire much of his writing, eg, in TheIntegration of the
Personality, 1939, p 272(on the inflated consciousness); and in
TheSecret. . ., some remarks on scholarship on p 77.
I take it Eliot (whom I know only slightly) used the
traditional symbolism consciously; the very title The Waste
L'and is a traditional symbol. A few Roman Catholic artists
use the traditional symbols quite consciously. I forget if I
mentioned to you my articles in Speculum(Sir Gawain . . .in
XIX, and Loathly Bride in XX; these and the two Psychiatry
articles and Diirers Knots are the kind of thing I mean by the
study of the forms of the common universe of discourse of
which the psychologist is nowadays discovering the buried
traces in the background of consciousness. I send you Marco
Pallis WayandtheMountain as another example (please return
it); also a recent lecture of my own, rather a different theme
(which please keep if you care to). I have myself done a great
deal of work on the Sphinx (Greek, not Egyptian); and though
I have not got round to completing it for publication, I did find,
after I had done most of it, that I had reached the same
conclusion that had long ago been reached, on the same
grounds, by Clement of Alexandria. This subject, of course,
cannot be discussed without going into the significance of the
Cherubim and their representation by Sphinxes in Assyrian art
of the time of Solomon. I have had a very interesting corres
pondence with John Layard; to a great extent he combines
the psycholigists methods with my own.
Very sincerely,
Mrs Roger S. Foster, instructor in psychology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn
Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA.
Sir Gawaim and the Green Kinght: Indra and Namuci, Speculum, XIX,
1944.
On the Loathly Bride, Speculum, XX, 1945.
Spiritual Paternity and the Puppet Complex, Psychiatry, VIII, 1945.
The Iconography of Diirers Knoten and Leonardos Concatenation, Art
Quarterly, VII, 1944.
To REV PAUL HANLEY FURFEY, SJ
January 7 (year uncertain)
My dear Furfey:
Many thanks for your letter and pains. I feel ashamed to have
put you to so much trouble.
I liked your article very much. I am all on the extreme side
and feel that as a whole, the Church has yielded too much to
modernism. Of course, there are individuals to whom this
would not apply. What is necessary above all is no intellectual
compromise whatever. That I admire in Guenon, that he makes
absolutely no concessions. I would rather see the truth reduced
to the possession of one single individual on earth than have the
whole world in a half light, even though that might be better
than none at all. I saw Carey the other day, and we spoke of
you.
Very sincerely,
Paul Hanley Furfey, SJ department of sociology, Catholic University of
America, Washington, D. C., USA.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt.
Graham Carey, Catholic author, Fairhaven, Vermont, USA.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
June 25, 1945
Dear Mother Ducey:
I recognize your very kind intention, though we are not
likely to agree on the total issue. However, I must say that
whatever limitations we ascribe to some other religion than our
own arc generally due to our ignorance of it. For example, in
Hinduism, God is not infinite good and infinite evil, but
transcends these (and all other) distinctions. These distinctions
are valid for us, but His Goodness (or to avoid confusion
with our own, I would rather say Worth) is not, like ours, as if
he might not have been good. He is the author of good and
evil only in the sense, that in any created world there must be
such contraries, or it would not be a world. In that He both
makes alive and slays, gives and takes away, he does things that
are from our human point of view both good and evil; but His
Worth is neither increased by the one nor decreased by the
other effect. The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken
away, blessed be the Name of the Lord. It will be, in fact, very
difficult, if not impossible, to make any valid criticism of
another religion if one has not studied its sacred texts and
practised its Way as thoroughly as it may be assumed that one
has studied those of ones own, and followed its Way. A
position like your own rests only upon an a priori conviction
that what you know must be the superior and only complete
body of truth; whether or not it is so, you have not
investigated, because the conviction suffices for you. All your
positive acts arc good; you are right to believe furiously in
your truth; but it is otherwise when you come to negative
convictions; your a priori conviction of others errors proves
nothing, and you arc not qualified to work from any but
sccond hand sourceswhich in the case of the oriental religions
arc very unsafe, since these religions were investigated at first
by those who had in mind to refute them, and later almost
wholly by rationalists, to whom they seemed a folly for the
same reasons that Christianity seems a folly to the world. The
last thing I would wish to deny (just as I would for Hinduism),
is that yours is a complete body of truth; but I do deny (just as I
would for Hinduism) that it is so in any exclusive sense. If you
arc not with us, at least we are with you.
Please do not pray that I may become a Christian; pray only
that I may know God better every day. That will be greater
charity on your part, and at the same time will leave you free
to think that that means becoming a Christian, but leaving it to
God whether or not that be the case.
Very sincerely,
Mother Agnes C. Ducey was an Ursaline nun of the Convent of the Sacred
Heart, St Joseph, Missouri, USA, who was praying earnestly that
Dr Coomaraswamy might bccome a Roman Catholic.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
July 9, 1945
Dear Mother Ducey:
If you have not sufficient humility, nor sufficient trust in
God, to pray to Him on my behalf, merely that I may know
Him better, leaving it to Him to decide whether or not that
necessarily means a Christian confession, correspondence is
useless, and had better be terminated.
Very sincerely,
Mother Agnes C. Ducey, as above.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
June 27, 1947
Dear Mother Ducey:
Many thanks for yours of June 24. Incidentally, it contains
the first news I have ever received of anyone condoning caste
murders in India. As for the destruction of human personal
ity, this would seem to be the annihilationist heresy against
which the Buddha so often fulminated. Moreover, as you
know, the Christian as well as the Platonic and Indian doctrine
is that duo sunt in homine\ of which two, one is the outer man or
Ego or personality the other the Inner Man, or very Self.
The problem, from the Indian point of view, as elsewhere, is
one of re-integration; for as St Paul and others are so well
aware, there is a conflict between these two until the
reconciliation of wills is effected, that is, until I want and I
ought have come to mean the same. In India, the nature of this
reconciliation is expressed as follows:
The self lends itself to that Self, they coalesce (or combine, or
are wedded); with the one form the man is united with
yonder world, and with the other to this world.
Aitareya Aranyaka II.3.7
There is no question of destruction; indeed, as you doubtless
know, the destruction of anything real, anything that IS, is a
metaphysical impossibility. True, it is a question of self-sacrifice,
and in Islam and Hinduism, as much as in Christian writings,
one speaks of self-naughting, but that implies a transformation,
not a destruction. Of course, it is almost impossible to discuss
of any other form of religion than ones own unless one is
equally familiar with both in their sources. For the Upanishads,
I would recommend to you the Rev W. R. Teapes Secret Lore of
India.
Of course, I fully agree about again as little children and
refer you to the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad III.4.2: Therefore
let a Brahman become disgusted with learning and desire to live
like a child. With regard to What shall it profit a man?, cf
ibid 1.4.8. On true Self-loveas in St Thomas Aquinas Sum
Theol II-II.26.4; and the same Upanishad 1.5.15 (distinction of
the Self or very Man from his temporal powers and attributes,
possessions, or wealth; all may be lost, if only the Very Man
is saved).
There would be no difficulty in interesting me in Saint
John of the Cross; so far, I do not actually know him well,
though I have some books of Allison Peers.
Lets us say that in all problems of comparative religion,
scholarship is a necessary qualification; but no amount of
scholarship will avail without charity. The learning is needed to
enable us to find out what has really been taught; charity to
protect us from a natural human tendency to misinterpret the
unfamiliar propositions unjustly.
Very sincerely,
Mother Agnes C. Ducey, as above.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
May 6, 1947
Dear Mother Ducey:
Many thanks for your kind letter. To answer fully would
require a very long letter; and I do not really want to engage in
any further controversy.
My point would be that if Christ be the only Son of God, the
question still remains What think ye of Christ? A Hindu
would be quite ready to recognize in Him a manifestation of the
Eternal Avatara. This position would be similar to that of
Clement of Alexandria, viz, that the Spirit of Christ has
appeared again and again in the world (in the succession of
prophets). This is also essentially the Islamic position. The
Hindu would point out also that even your own St Thomas
Aquinas allows that the heathen may be inspired (for the
reference, see marked passage in one of the printed papers I
send separately).
Nothing can be known except in accordance with the mode
of the knower. Christianity as a system of theology is a
mode and in this respect not to be thought of as universal.
It is the Truth that appears in all religions that alone can be
thought of as universal, ie, as essence distinguished from
human accidents. Moreover, one must not forget that all
specific dogmas (even that of the Trinity) arc transcended in the
Negative Theology.
The other religions do not feel themselves under any
necessity to assert the universality of their forms, but only of
their essence. This is a very happy position, and enables them
to recognize the essential truth of what are for them other
religions. Followers of other religions are not opposed to
Christianity as such at all, but only to certain activities of
Christians, notably missions. These are admittedly and
deliberately destructive of their cultures, such as the Hindu; for
the other cultures are not profane cultures, but inseparably
bound up with the corresponding faiths. It is only on this level
of reference, then, that opposition rises.
Very sincerely,
Mother Agnes C. Ducey, as above.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
June 20, 1947
Dear Mother Ducey:
Many thanks for yours of June 16. About the Upanishads,
and [their] value for a Catholic, you could hardly judge without
knowing them as thoroughly, in their original language, as you
know the Christian scriptures. However, consider the well
known prayer from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28: From
the unreal lead us to the Real (or from untruth to Truth): from
darkness, lead us unto Light: from death, lead us unto
Immortality.
I have DArcys Mind and Heart of Love, and can sayin this
case from the point of view of strictly Christian scholarship
that it seems to me to be a sloppy and careless piece of work. I
say this with special reference to Chapter VII, which begins
with a ridiculous allegory quoted from Paul Claudel, who is
nothing but a pseudo-mystic himself. I am referring to
DArcys misunderstanding and arbitrary misuse of the terms
anima and animus. You will find these terms correctly used in
William of Thierry, The Golden Epistle, 50, 51: anima vel
spiritus, and mens vel animus. Anima and animus are, from
classical times onwards, respectively the feminine soul and the
masculine Spirit in any one of us, man or woman. So animus is
anima's true love; and if Claudels anima is untrue to her animus,
it can only be for the sake of the world that she deceives him!
Such a book as this is of no use to any non-Christian who wants
to know what Christianity is. A devout Roman Catholic friend
of mine in England holds similar views of DArcy, and so I dare
say do many others. I say all this without any reference to other
than Christian points of view; although, of course, the Thomist
duo sunt in homine and the doctrine of true Self-love are
common to Christianity, Plato, Aristotle, and also to Hindu
ism and Buddhism.
I think the attitude of the University of Bombay is, broadly
speaking, correct, but it is going rather too far to forbid lectures
on Dante! Things have changed in India as elsewhere. You can
only teach Christianity as what Hindus would call a darsana, a
point of view, as one valid Way amongst others, leading to
one goal.
As for conversion: there are rare souls who can give
themselves to God more easily in one (new to them) Tradition,
than in another (in which they were reared). I know, for
instance, of a Tibetan who is a real Christian, and of Christians
who have become true Moslems; indeed, the Moslems say of
such that sometimes they go farther (on the Way) than even
we do. But such changes of mode are very exceptional needs.
I know of a Trappist monk in Belgium whose brother is an
outstanding European Moslem; neither wishes to convert
the other, and both are highly respectful of the North American
Indian religion, nor do either of them wish to change it. Both
are men of prayer, and both of the highest intelligence and
devotion.
With best wishes for your journey,
Mother Agnes C. Ducey, as above.
To MR R. HOPE
April 8, 1946
Dear Mr Hope:
Our disagreement is largely about terms. I would not regard
thinking, if this means contemplation, a moral act;
morality for Aquinas et al, pertains to the active life, not the
contemplative life. If thinking is reasoning, then it would
be an activity with moral implications.
That there is infinity in everything, I^agree; but this does not
mean that the thing itself can be described as infinite. The sands
of the sea are not infinite in number, only indefinite; their
number can be estimated and such numbers arc dealt with by
statistics. Thus the opposites, of which the walls of Paradise are
built, are indefinitely numerous; but this wall is still a part of
finity through the limit of space, and infinity lies beyond it. The
same infinity is, of course, immanent in all things as well as
beyond them; but this immanence no more allows us to speak
of any thing as infinite than it allows us to equate this man
So-and-so with God; there is God in him, but he is not God,
and if deified by ablatio omnis alteritatis, then he is no longer
this man So-and-so.
When 1 seem definitely to disagree with you is in that I do not
believe in a moral or spiritual progress of mankind, but only for
individuals. It is still possible for individual consciousncss to
unfold even in this intellectually decadent age. What you call
Preparatory School Stage (historically) represents for me
something nearer to the Golden Age, intellectually and
spiritually. I have to use its language when I want to be precise.
It is only too true that we in the East are in danger of
following in your footsteps.
Sinccrely,
Mr R. Hope, Leeds, England.
To PROFESSOR (WILLIAM FOXWELL?) ALBRIGHT
July 1, 1942
Dear Professor Albright:
Many thanks for your book. Naturally, the introductory
parts with their general considerations arc of most interest to
me. It is in this connection that I would like to say that I think
you take Levy-Bruhl too much for granted, and wonder if you
have considered the other point of view stated in Oliver Leroys
La Raison primitif, Paris . . . 1927; W. Schmidts High Gods of
North America, Oxford, 1933, and my Primitive Mentality in
QuarterlyJournal of theMythic Society. (The last I am sending
you but must ask you to return it in due course as I have left
only a few lending copies).
I think that to Levy-Bruhl perhaps, and to Frazer quite
surely, Schmidts words apply: such pleasure as proceeds
from the ironical railleries not seldom dealt out to primitive
man, which betray so much bitterness deeply concealed at the
bottom of the heart. I, too, know this bitterness but do not
hide it, and I see its basis as a mea culpa of modern man.
In so far as I amand that is pretty fara primitive
mentality my self, I do not have this bitterness.
One other point: the modern savage is often not a true
representative of primitive man, but very often degenerate,
in that his notions are literally supcr-stitions which he no longer
really or fully understandsfor example, when he calls stone
arrowheads thunderbolts.
Very sincerely,
Professor Albright is not identified beyond his family name, but it is
assumed that he was William Foxwell Albright, the prominent Orientalist
who specialized in Semitic languages and who wrote From the Stone Age to
Christianity, first published in 1940.
Lucien Levy-Bruhl, philosopher who gained a reputation as a social
anthropologist from working with the reports of other anthropologists, but
who nevertheless felt qualified to write How Natives Think.
Sir James G. Frazer, social anthropologist and renowned as author of The
Golden Bough.
Primitive Mentality, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, XX, 1940.
To DR FRITZ MARTI
October 6, 1946
Dear Dr Marti:
I do wish I had a better opportunity to talk with you at
Kenyon College. I hope we meet again.
In an old letter of yours (1942) you ask if I would say that the
various religions are mere contingent disguises of a pure
philosophical truth. Not exactly that: I would say are
contingent adaptations of a pure metaphysical truth (primarily
experiential, ie, revealed). I think this follows almost inevitably
from the axiom the mode of knowledge follows the mode of
the nature of the knowcr. (I certainly would not use the word
mere). For me unaveritas invariis signis varieresplendetad
majoremgloriamDei.
I was pleased by the reception of my discussion at Kenyon.
However, I think most of the audience was liberal. And my
interest is not in putting all religions on the same level by way
of latitudinarianism, but in a demonstration of real equiva
lences; hence most of my work deals with strictly orthodox
forms of Christianity, and hence the manner in which 1
discussed the present problem by the words alter Christus.
Very sincerely,
Dr Fritz Marti, Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA.
AKC had given a talk at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio as part of a
conference entitled The Heritage of the English Speaking Peoples and their
Responsibility (Octobcr 46. 1946). This was later published in the
conference proceedings (which bore the title of the conference) as For What
Heritage and to Whom Are the English-speaking Peoples Responsible?
To DR VASUDEVA SAHARAN AGRAWALA
March 23, 1939
My dear Mr Agrawala:
I am very happy to receive your reprints announcing such
wonderful finds. It will be impossible for me to write you an
article in time for the Shah Volume, but I shall be very happy if
you render some one of the articles you mentioned, already
printed, in Hindi.
I should say that it is futile to search for meanings in the
Samhitas which are not the meanings of the Upanishads. I
cannot believe that anything taught in the Upanishads was not
known to the mantras, and this makes it inconceivable that they
came into being without an understanding of their meaning. I
do however believe that Indian scholars, in order to fortify their
position as against the profanity and puerility of European
scholarship, must nowadays make use of the philosophia perennis
as a whole and not only of its Indian forms. An interpretation
of the Vedas is not really an interpretation of Indian metaphy
sics, but of metaphysics. It is also possible to add very much to
the understanding of western scriptures if they arc read in the
light of the Indian atmavidya.
I expect you have seen my article in the Q.J. Mythic Society,
on the Inverted Tree. My interest is in doctrines that are true,
rather than because they arc Indian. The philosophia perennis
our sanatana dharma is not a private property of any time, or
place, or people, but the birth-right of humanity.
Very sincerely,
Dr Vasudcva Saharan Agrawala was superintendent of Indian Museums,
New Delhi.
Samhitas, are oldest of the Indian scriptures; while the Upanishads are the
latest of the sruti to take written form. Each branch of the Vedas consists of
three portions: 1) the samhita or mantra portion . . ., 2) the Brahmana
portion which contains the elaborate expositions of the various karmas or
rituals for which mantras have been composed in the corresponding samhita
portion . . . 3) the dranyaka or speculative portion of the Vedas. . . . Instead
of the word mantra. . . he ought to have said samhita which contains mantras
and other texts. (courtesy of Sri Keshavram N. Iengar, Bangalore, India).
The Inverted Tree, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, XXIX, 1938.
Atmai'idya = Self-knowledge.
To RICHARD GREGG
January 29, 1940
My dear Richard:
I have been reading some more of your book, which I do not
find easy. I am especially impressed by the citations from Peter
Stcrrypure Vedanta! I shall get the book.
I am in full agreement on many points, necessarily so because
I live in a world in which not only words, but all things are felt
to be alive with meaning. A word without inherent meaning
would be mere noise: a merely decorative and in
significant art, a dead superfluity. That people have begun to
think of poetry as a matter of sound only is sufficiently
symptomatic (of the cave dwellers purely animal satisfaction
with the shadows on his wall). In our view, the Divine Liturgy
is explained as like the fusion of sound with meaning (in a
word, the Indian thinks of words as sounds, written signs
being, if used at all, symbols of the sounds rather than of the
meanings). Our present mentality is more and more contented
with what is a dead, inanimate, incloqucnt environment. (1
mean those to whom such knowledge as is not empirical is
considered as meaningless.) How it can be possible to go on
living in such an environment is strange; one must presume
that this is not living, but rather a mere existence or
vegetation.*
I agree that the antithesis of realism and nominalism is
ultimately resolved in the solipsism of the only seer (in
whose vision we individually participate only); what this seer
sees is itself, the world picture painted by itself on the canvas
of the Self (Sankara, like Peter Stcrry). The reality of the picture
is that of its maker, neither an independent reality (extreme
nominalism) nor an unreality (extreme realism).**
I do feel you should look into Indian Rhetoric, with its
discussion of meaning (Skr artlia unites the senses meaning
and value and could often be rendered by iitleittio) on various
levels of reference, eg, obvious, underlying, and ultimate
(anagogic); and its terms rasa (flavour) and vyanjana (sug
gestion, overtone, originally also flavour).
I think you arc in danger of confusing the personal how of
style with the necessary how. In a perfectly educated and
unanimous society (tradition always envisages unanimity, as
docs also science on a lower level of rcfcrencc) everyone would
say the same thing in the same way, the only way possible for
perfect expression in the currcnt language, whether Latin,
Sanskrit, Chinese or visually symbolic. The same thing cannot
be said perfectly in two different phrases, though both may refer
to the same thing and can be understood by whoever is capable
of understanding. Ones own effort for clarity amounts to the
search for the one and only, once for all expression of an idea.
In the same way when one feels that anything has been said
once for all, one prefers to quote, and not to paraphrase in
ones own wordsone must not confuse originality with
novelty, whatever idea one has made ones own can come out
from us as from an origo, regardless of how many times it may
have come forth from others or to what extent the supposedly
corresponding words or formula have become a cliche.
Very sincerely,
* Dr Coomaraswamy frequently stated that modern man lives in a world of
impoverished reality, citing a phrase of Wilbur Marshall Urban.
** On solipsism, cf the nonsense limerick below, which is really not all
nonsense:
There once was a man who said, God
Must find it exceedingly odd
If he finds that this tree continues to be
When theres no one about in the Quad.
Dear Sir, your astonishments odd:
I am always about in the quad.
And thats why the tree
Will continue to be,
Since observed by yours faithfully, God.
Richard Gregg,
Peter Sterry, Platonisl and Puritan, 1613-1672, A Selection from his writings
with a biographical and critical study by Vivian De Sola Pinto, 1934.
To RUTH NANDA ANSHEN
November 8, 1946
Dear Nanda:
To know and to be arc the same thing; this was not, as is
commonly supposed, the meaning of Parmenides words (fr 5):
to gar auto noein estin te kai einai. This simply means that that
which can be thought is the same as that which can be (see
Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy 4th ed, 1930, p 173, n 2).
Plotinus, Emieads 5.9.5, quotes Parmenides words, but
although by this time it was possible for an infinitive to be the
subject of a sentence (and in fact Plotinus uses to einai as subject
in Enneads 3.7.6), his citation of Parmenides words is to show
that in the immaterial, knowledge and the known arc the
same; and while this implies that there the knower, knowledge
and the known arc the same, what is actually predicated is
hardly more than the Scholastic adequatio rei et intellectus
Platos making that in us which thinks like unto the objects of
its thought, which if they be eternal and divine, will restore
our being to its original nature (Timaeus 90). It seems to have
been St Augustine who first explicitly enunciated that in divinis
to live, to be, and to know arc one and the same thing (De Triti
6.10.11; In Joan Evang 99.4; and Conf 13.11; also synthesis,
p 99). To be what one knows is not a given status, but one to be
achieved. What is presently true is that as ones thinking is,
such one becomes (yac cittas tanmayo bhavatv, and it is because of
this that thinking should be purified and transformed, for were
it as centered upon God as it is now upon things sensibly
perceptible, Who would not be liberated from his bondage?
(Maitri Upanishad VI.34.4.6).
In my opinion yac cittas tanmayo bhavati, Maitri UP VI.34.4
(or its English equivalent as above) would be the best motto for
you. Second best would be to use Parmenides words without
translation, leaving the reader to make what he can of them.
In any case, to know = to be is only true for us to the
extent that we are, not for so long as we are not yet gewerden was
wirr sint.
Cordially,
Ruth Nanda Anshcn was editor of the Scicncc and Culture series published by
Harper Brothers. She wished to use the sentence discussed here as a motto.
Synthesis = An Augustine Synthesis, Erich Przywara; see Bibliography.
(fr 5) refers to the fragment in H. Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, see
Bibliography.
To GEORGE SARTON
July 7, 1942
Dear Sarton:
You had originally asked for 5,000 words. If the enclosed is
under present conditions too long, you must try to cut it down.
I cut out much on page 3.
You may be interested to know that Ive had considerable
correspondence with Jaeger lately. I find his belief in only one
civilization properly to be so calledviz Greek (expressed in
Paideia) rather disconcerting and nearly as dangerous as the
doctrine of one superior race.
Very sincerely,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Werner Jaeger, classicist and professor at Harvard University; author of
Paideia, 1943.
To MR R. F. C. HULL
Date uncertain
Dear Mr Hull;
Re Vedanta Sutra II.2.28;
In general one must take into account the proposition that
knowledge depends upon adequatio rei et intellectus.
Also that both Buddhists and Vedantists recognize a double
truth: one of opinion, convention, pragmatic, empirical; the
other of knowledge, ccrtainty, intellectual; ie, relative and
absolute.
Now first, as to the elephant. The whole allusion is
contained in the words bravisi nir-ankusatvatte tundasya. Ankusa
= elephant goad, or any hook; tunda = beak, snout, trunk. The
phrase is a technicality, and is represented by Thibauts words,
You can make what arbitrary statement you please. More
literal, but less intelligible to a reader would be You can say
what you like, but its all like guiding an elephant by its trunk
when you have no goad. Thus the difference between Thibaut
and Deusscn is more apparent than real, and I think you might
stick to the former.
Of course, to me, the whole controversy is stupid, because
both arc agreed on the distinction of relative from real truth.
Neither is it the Buddhist position that vijnana is any more real
than any other of the five skandhas that constitute the life of the
empirical Ego that is not my Self. But vijnana may stand for
the four components of conscious existence, so that sa-vijnana
kaya = soul and body, soul being the same as empirical
Ego. You ask if the Buddhist argument (4) is meant to be
fallacious; I think you might call it a straw man
In (9), the son of a barren mother is a stock expression for
anything without potentiality of existence.
The argument in (11) is very interesting, because it is actually
the well known nil agit in seipsum, first enunciated in the West
by Plato. From it, it necessarily follows that duo sunt in homine.
It is also very interesting to find in the whole passage a
dcfcncc of the actuality of appearances, against the current
(erroneous) supposition that Vedanta denies the reality of the
world of appearances, as such. Even a mirage is a real
mirage. But obviously nothing that is an appearance can be
callcd real in the same sense as that which appears; no image
is as real as that of which it is an image. The word
phenomenon itself has always an implied of something;
the verb appear must have an implied subject.
The Buddhist agrumcnt in (12) seems to me fallacious; but
here, again, I think we arc dealing with a straw man.
However, taking it as it stands, the Vedantist reply in (17) is
very good.
The Vedantist witness is, of course, the only seer, ie,
the Self (of the self) of the Upanishads. Sankara always assumes
that the Buddhist denied this Self, which was not the case; it is
the Self in which the Buddha himself takes refuge and
commends others to do the same; it is callcd Self, the Lord of
self in Sn*
In your very last commcnt marked (14), I dont see how both
subject and object can both be regarded as self-proved.
Self-proved can only refer to a pcrcipicnt, because it cannot
be known as an object to itself; the well known proposition that
the eye cannot see itself, though it proves itself by the act of
its perceivingsimilarly in the case of the Self that one is, but
cannot know. Whatever can be known objectively cannot be my
Self.
Sinccrcly,
* Cf Dhammapada 160: The Self is Lord of self; who else could be the Lord?
Mr R. F. C. Hull, Thaxted, Essex, England, was translating Georg Mischs
Dcr Weg in die Philosophie (1926), which consisted of many quotations from
the Hindu scriptures; Mr Hull had written to AKC for help in clarifying
several points.
Sn, probably Sutta Nipata, an early Pali scripture.
To MR PAUL GRIFFITH
July 11, 1944
Dear Sir:
Thank you for your inquiry. I appreciate the importance of
public opinion and wish 1could cooperate with you in this
most timely undertaking because India is the most misrepre
sented country in the world, and it is about time Americas
intelligence on the subject was no longer insulted.
A book like the Bhagavad Gita would be particularly difficult
to illustrate. A metaphysical treatise hardly lends itself to
illustration. In Indian copies, almost the only illustration ever
found is that of the tnise eti scene, Arjuna in converse with Sri
Krishna; such illustrations arc of the type reproduced by L. D.
Barnetts translation, published by Dent, which you could
easily find.
A brave attempt to illustrate the Mahabharata as a whole has
been made in the Poona edition, now in the course of
publication. A considerable part of this has appeared, and
copies are in numerous American libraries. To illustrate the
Mahabharata, easy as it would be (in a certain sense and
extremely difficult in another) [would be] really extraneous to
the content of the Bhagavad Gita.
To illustrate the Bhagavad Gita and its whole background
would be possible, but an immense undertaking, and would
amount to an illustration of Indian culture generally, including
the mythology. I am afraid my feeling is that it is an almost
impracticable scheme to propose one illustrated magazine article
on the subject. Nanda Lai Bose, whom you mention, is the
best, or one of the best of the modern Indian painters. If time
permits why not communicate with him at Santiniketan,
Bolpur, Bengal, British India, directly. I shall be very glad to
hear from you if I can be of further use.
Yours very truly,
Paul Griffith, London.
TO STEPHEN HOBHOUSE
Octobcr 21, 1944
Dear Mr Hobhousc:
With further rcfcrcncc to your last book on William Law, on
the subjcct of the divine love and wrath, I write to express
some surprise that you do not take into consideration the
solutions of the problem in other theologies, notably the
Islamic and Hindu. Thus, in Islam, heaven and hell arc callcd
the reflection of the divine mercy and majesty respectively; and,
I may add also, an ultimate apokatastasis of Iblis is foreseen.
Your words in the middle of p. 375 (It means . . . evil or
cowardly will) are almost exactly a statement of the theology
of the mixta persona of Mitra-Varunau in Hindu scripture, where
Mitra (lit, friend) is the Sun (not him whom all men see,
but whom not all men know with the mind), the light of
lights, and Varuna is the stern judge of the dark Sky; these arc
also rcspcctivcly the sacerdotiumand the regnum, in divinis; and
this world of light and darkness is the concept and product of
the said conjoint principles which are themselves a unity, the
Supreme Identity of God and Godhead. Thus, there is no
opposition of light and darkness abintra (lion and lamb lie
down together) but inevitably abextra; for a world without
contraries would not be a world (locus of compossibles),
while (as Cusa says) God is to be found beyond them, so that
the Hindu speaks of liberation from the pairs of opposites.
On page 291 you discuss the soldier and the Muhamma
dan position, to which you might have added the Indian as
stated in the BhagavadGita. There is a point that you ignore in
these positions, and that is the warriors vocation, as such, does
not permit of fighting with hatred, but only of a fighting well
in a given cause. The most notable illustration of the
consequences of this takes place in connection with Ali, who
had nearly overcome his opponent when the latter spit in his
face. Ali immediately drew back, and refused to take advantage
of his superior position. Why?, the opponent asked. Ali
replied, It was impossible for me to kill you in anger. This
naturally led to an ultimate reconciliation. I feel that one should
not allude to a doctrine like the Islamic doctrine of the jihad
without a full grasp of all its implications.
With rcfercncc to the fire of life, etc, on page 279, and to
the wrath as the wheel of life, these ideas are expressed in
India in almost identical terms, in the notion of the withholding
of the fuel from our fire, and perhaps most notably in the
Buddhas First Sermon in which he describes all things in the
world as being on fire.
My general point is that the fundamental doctrines of
religion arc to be found in every religion; and that, especially
when expounding the mystics it is of the greatest possible
advantage to bring together and point out these equivalents,
which throw so much light on one another as very often to
dispose of difficulties that seem to inhere in any one formula
tion taken by itself.
Yours very sincerely,
Stephen Hobhouse, editor of Selected Mystical Writings of William Law,
London, 1940; identified on p.63.
Jihad, holy war; a religious war with those who arc unbelievers in the
mission of Muhammad . . . an incumbent religious duty . . . there are two
jihads: al-jihadu l-Akhar . . the greater holy war which is against oneself,
and the jihadu l-Asghar, against unbelievers, which is the lesser holy war.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
November 6, 1944
Dear Professor Northrop:
I read with the deepest interest your brilliant paper in the
Hawaii Symposium. I entirely agree with you in this main
premise that Oriental philosophies start from an immediate
apprehension of reality, and in their extension arc not proce
dures by abstraction, but statements about the reality in terms
of analogy, for the sake of understanding and communication. I
am not at all sure, however, whether it is safe to use the word
aesthetic univocally for what is directly apprehended by the
sense organs, and what is immediately apprehended when the
direction of vision is (as for Plato and the Upanishads)
inverted, so that it regards not the seen, but the seer. Of
course, wc do use a corresponding term, saks'at (eye to eye) in
the Upanishads, but there is a clearly understood hierachy of
saksat, paroksa and saksat (visible, occult, visible), but it would
not be supposed by anyone that the two visions arc both a
matter of sensible perception. If there is one thing certain, it is
that the Brahman-Atman is not a knowablc object in the sense
that we know a blue area when wc see it.
My position is that of the Oriental before the Western
influences (see your p. 21); in this connection, incidentally,
your words not a Moslem would only apply here if you
intend a strictly exoteric Islam; there can be no question but
that, as Jahangir remarked, Your Vedanta is the same as our
Tasawwuf. In Jaisi or in Kabir, what is Hindu and what is
Moslem? in Rumi, too, who can distinguish the Neo-
Platonic from the Hindu and Buddhist factors? Cf also
Guenon who knows both Arabic and Sanskrit; his personal
affiliations are Islamic, but he prefers as a rule to expound the
philosophia perennis from Indian sources. 1hold with Jcrcmias
that the various cultures are the dialects of one and the same
universal language of the spirit, expounded semper, et ubique et
ab omnibus.
I fully agree with your depreciation of the translations by
mere linguists; I virtually never use a text without having
consulted and considered its original Latin, Greek or Sanskrit,
and though I am more dependent in the case of Persian, even
there I do what I can; the versions I use in print are usually my
own. What I have observed is that it is precisely the mere
linguists who most of all emphasize the oppositions or
differences of East and West; as Schopenhauer puts it, they
exhaust themselves in trying to show that even when the same
things are said, the words mean something different. Of
course, that is largely because the mere linguists, though
nowadays they are mostly rationalists (and at the same time the
veriest amateurs in philosophy, as some even confess), inherit
(mostly quite unconsciously) all sort of Christian prejudices,
moralistic and other. What has most impressed me is that East
and West (and for that matter, other dialects, too, eg,
American Indian) have been forever saying the same thing; and
that not only often in the same idiom, but so far as Greek and
Sanskrit are concerned, using cognate words, so that Sanskrit
could be rendered into Greek more directly and truly than into
any other language, though Latin also lends itself.
To take a specific case or two: I would say that the
fundamental agreement of Plato with Vedanta is most conspi
cuous in their common doctrine of the two selves, mortal
and immortal, that dwell together in us; the doctrine of the
inner and outer man which survives in the Scholastic duo sunt in
homitie, and in countless phrases of our daily speech such as
my better self. If, as you say, the Western other self is
postulated, then it is no more than the empirical self or ego,
and hence the doubt about immortality. If the East has no such
doubts, it is because there, the other self (identified with
Brahma, the ineffable) is apprehended immediately. But surely,
it is only for a modern that the other self is a mere
postulate; Socrates daimoti was no postulate for him, but an
often very inconvenient Duke (hegemon, Skr Netr) who
always holds me back from what T want to do; cf his words,
Socrates you may doubt, but not the truth. Actually, our
own conscience (= Socratic daimoti) as Apulcius first, I
believe, said; and = to the Scholastic synteresis, inwyt) is not a
postulate for us, but something immediately known.
It appears to me that the real postulates (and notably I as a
denotation of our inconstant personality, which never stops to
be, as was equally explicitly remarked by Plato, Plutarch and
the Hindus and Buddhists) cannot be regarded as having any
more validity than attaches to the transient phenomena from
which they arc abstracted; like the laws of science, they
have only a convenient value, permitting men to make
predictions with a high, but never absolute, probability value.
To speak of testing the truth of postulates by experiment is
only to argue in a circle; I do not sec how any theoria could be
proved or disproved experimentally, and, in fact, the Oriental
position would be that whatever is really true can never be
demonstrated, but only realized. What experiment proves
regarding a postulate is not its truth, but its utility, for the
particular end in view. That the postulates participate in the
transcience of the phenomena from which they are abstracted,
moreover, appears in the fact that the postulates are always
changing, being discarded and replaced by others.
The unity of eastern and western doctrines could be equally
well demonstrated from a monograph on the traditional
psychology, from equivalent iconographies, and in many other
ways. As I sec it, your basic opposition of East and West is
recognizable only if we set over against each other [the] modern
West and the surviving tradition of the East; for example,
Descartes cogito ergo sum is sheer pathos from an Oriental point
of view, which would argue cogito ergo est, and in doing so
would be in word for word agreement with, for example,
Philo. I wonder, too, if in making the opposition, you are not
overlooking the whole Western via negativa: Dionysius, Eck
hart, The Cloud of Unknowing, Cusa, and all that aspect of
European culture which is a closed book to the modern man, so
much so that our Middle Ages arc every bit as mysterious to
him as the East itselfis it really two very different things that
both appear so strange?
To be sure, as you say, the postulations arc necessary for
modern technology. But is modern technology necessary for
man, I mean for the good life and felicity? The notion of
an everlasting raising of the standard of living, the perpetual
creation of new wants (by advertisement, etc) is really in order
that someone may make money out of supplying them after
which they become necessitieshas that any real connection
with the quality of life? Is it not as much as to will and decree
that men shall never be content? The argument is still in a circle;
it is only after it has been assumed that modern technology is
necessary that it follows that we must postulate. From what I
regard as the Christian and Oriental point of view, all this
production for its own sake, and with it the postulates it
demands, are luxuries, rather than means to the good life.
Could one, in fact, think of anything more luxurious than
the ego-postulate?
I think we arc dealing with fundamental problems, the
importance of which cannot be exaggerated. I hope we shall
have the opportunity to talk them over again some day. I could
almost wish that there were an opportunity, too, to present
somewhere in print a rejoinder to your article on the above
lines.
With very kind regards,
Filmer Stuart Cuckow Northrop, professor of philosophy, Yale University,
New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
The Hawaii Symposium
Dr Coomaraswamy enlarges the famous Vincentian Canon expounded by
St Vincent of Lerins as the test for true Catholicity and orthodoxy in belief:
that which has been believed semper, el ubique et ab omnibusthat which has
been believed always, everywhere and by everyone.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
Date uncertain
Dear Professor Northrop:
Many thanks for your kind letter. My criticism rests upon
the fact that you speak of the most profound and mature
insights of East and West and seem to ignore the break in
Western thought that takes place with the shift (ca 1200) from
realism to nominalism; one cannot compare East and West
unless one makes it clear what West one is thinking ofwhat I
assert is the identity of the most profound and mature
insights, which were an essential part of Christianity once, but
arc ignored or even denied by the exoteric Christianity of
today, which virtually overlooks the Godhead altogether and
considers only God*. The Supreme Identity is one essence
with two natures, human and inhuman, light and darkness,
mercy and majesty, God and Godhead, ie, humanly speaking,
good and evil. In other words also, finite and infinite; assuredly,
as for the Greeks, the infinite is from the point of view of finite
beings, evil.
As I see it, neither civilization has anything to learn from the
other. How often I respond to Western inquirers by saying
Why seek wisdom in India? You have it all in the tradition of
your own which you have only forgotten. The value of the
Eastern tradition for you is not that of a difference, but that it
can remind you of what you have forgotten.
Now the East can differ from the West in its point of view, in
that the one can be Traditional and the other anti-traditional,
and here a mutual understanding is impossible. However, I
myself am so perpetually accustomed to thinking simul
taneously it terms of Eastern and Western tradition as to be able
to say that my perception of their identity is immediate.
Why consider the inferior philosophers?, as Plato says; and
that is why I can say that the most profound and mature
insights of East and West arc the same, while if wc arc
thinking only of the modern West, I fully agree as to their
difference. To agree to differ is no solution. If you will not take
Plato, Plotinus, Cusa, Boehmc, Dante, etc, as representing the
most profound and mature insights of the West, agreement
and cooperation will be ruled out, cxcept upon those lowest
levels of refcrcncc on which there is always room to quarrel.
The notion of a common humanity is not enough for peace;
for what is needed is our common divinity, and the recognition
that nothing is really dear but for the sake of the immortal
principle that is one and the same in all men Platonic love as
understood by Ficino!
Jesus never emphasized the individual value of every soul,
but the universal value in every soul, a very different story.
Eckhart was right in saying that all scripture cries aloud for
freedom from self; and it is only to the extent that we practice
sclf-naughting, or at least acknowledge that I is a postulate
valid only for practical (and ultimately always selfish)
purposes and not a truth (as Plato, Plutarch, et al, very well
know), that we can approach the grounds of peace.
1 shall look forward to seeing you when opportunity affords,
and thanks for the invitation. I have much to talk over with
Goodcnough, too.
Im just, as it happens, attending Dr Marquettes lectures on
Mysticism. He also secs there the only practical solution.
PS: I think the problem of truth as something that can only
be rccognizcd but cannot be proved has a good deal to do
with the importance attached to faith (assent to a credible
proposition) in India as in the West. Of course, I distinguish
faith from fidcism which only amounts to credulity, as
exercised in connection with postulates, slogans and all kinds of
wishful thinking. Cf Tripura Rahasya, Hemacuda Section, IX,
88: That which is self-evident without the necessity to be
proved, is alone real; not so other things. This is with
reference to the difference between understanding the universe
and understanding the space or continuum, identified with
Brahmaakasa, kha (and loka in its absolute sense).
Sincerely,
* And which is -seen currently to have less and less time for God,
preoccupied as it is with all manner of social questions.
F. S. C. Northrop, as above.
Erwin R. Goodenough, professor of the history of religion, Yale Universi
ty, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
June 5, 1946
Dear Prof Northrop:
I am delighted to receive your book and offer my congratula
tions; 1have read considerable parts of it, and in many passages
admire your penetration. I am still fully convinced that the
metaphysics of East and West are essentially the same until the
time of the Western deviation from the common norms,
beginning in the 14th century. I am a little surprised you do not
make any reference to Guenon who has treated these problems
at length. As to the identities: I would cite, for example, the
axiom that duo sunt in homine, one that becomes and one that is,
the former unreal because inconstant, the latter constant and
therefore real. It is interesting that the modern psychologists
(Jung, Hadley, Sullivan, Peirce, etc) have rediscovered the
unreality of the empirical Ego; to realise which is the beginning
of wisdom and the sine qua non for happiness.
Now a few notes: p 13, on the testing of theory by fact;
hypothesis by fact, no doubt, but surely not teoria by fact.
Hypothesis is the product of thinking, reasoning; but theory is
just that which is seen, and for Plato, Aristotle and the East
alike, nous is infallible. So fact cannot prove or disprove a
theory, but only illustrate it. Even so for Spinoza still, Veritas
norma sui et falsi est\ To propose to test theory by fact is simply
pragmatism.
Your recognition of the positive reality of the experience
of Nirvana is admirable. However, it would not be correct to
identify Nirvana with the aesthetic continuum, ic, Ether; in
Buddhism, it is explicit that Nirvana lies beyond the experience
of the sole reality of the infinitely etherial realm, and beyond
the distinction of experience from in-experience. Necessarily
so, because in Nirvana there is no process while the
experience of the undifferentiated aesthetic continuum is still,
as such, something that takes place, and an event; the
bhavagga, summit level of becoming, is still in the field of
becoming and even from these highest heavens there is still a
further escape.
P 359: It cannot be said that Hinayana Buddhism survives in
India. P 361, the Upanishads are only partly in verse; for
example, much of the B U is in prose. Passim: I would not call
Nehru cultivated; he is very ignorant of Indian culture,
which he has only quite recently begun to study in English
translations! If one is discussing East and West it is never any
use to quote Westernized Orientals, whose point of view will
necessarily be that of contemporary Europeans. Incidentally,
too, Jinnah is equally ignorant of things Islamic.
p 487: The Christian claim to perfection presents no
difficulty to an Oriental, who can readily grant it. It is merely
that the Christian denial of perfection to Oriental metaphysics
is an obstacle to Christian understanding, p 343: the Sea, for the
East, is not a symbol of time, but of undifferentiated eternity.
As for Eckhart, Silesius, etc, the Sea is that in which the
rivers (streams of consciousness, individualities) lose their
name and configuration, ie, their limitationspanta rei. To
Eckharts plunge in corresponds such Pali terms as nibbano-
gadham, the dive, or immergence, into Nirvana.
There arc many things in which I am in fullest agreement
with your interpretations; but I am still very sure that, as before
modern times, all your differentiations from the East will be
found to break down!
PS: Suppose we grant that at least the modern western
position is what you call theoretical, and the Eastern
[attitude] founded in an Erlebnis [experience]. This does not
mean that the Eastern position is empirical or aesthetic,
although it is of a reality erlebt, not inferred. The great
experiment consists in the arrest of all aesthetic experience,
which can be only in terms of subject and object. The Self can
no more know itself than the eye can sec itself.* It is only the
transient Ego that can be known, like other natural
phenomena, external to Self. That the Self itself is unknowable,
otherwise than by negation of whatever and all it is not,
coincides with Jungs position (cf Two Essays in Analytical
Psychology, 1928, p 268, where he contrasts the known Ego
with the unknown Self); I mention him only because he is a
typically Western mentality, whose orientalism is quite
spurioushe expressly repudiates metaphysics. All this
makes me very uncomfortable when you speak of ultimate
reality as an aesthetically perceived continuum; the very fact
of perceptibility rules anything out from ultimate reality, all
perception involving relations. In Buddhism, the realm of
naught whatever is only 6th in a hierarchy of eight states, all
regarded as relative; Nirvana is explicitly and emphatically
an escape from all these states.
Kindest regards,
*On the face of it, this sentence might be taken to imply some deficiency in
the Self, per impossible. God cannot be known as object; only God can know
God, as a Christian or other monotheist might say. Ontologically, Gods
knowledge of Himself is pcrfect and coincides with His Being. On the
supra-ontological level, that of the Godhead or Self, all distinctions, all
positive statements arc transcended by excess of meaning, and one can only
say not this, not this; hence, the ultimate necessity of a negative theology
and a via negativa which, however, in no sense imply privation in the
Supreme Principle.
F. S. C. Northrop, as above. In 1946, Prof Northrop published The Meeting
of East and West, a pioneering effort in the comparative analysis of cultures
and a book widely acclaimed in its time.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
July 12, 1946
Dear Northrop:
Re atomism, in your book, pp 262-263: it is, of course,
sufficiently obvious that the notions of indivisibles with
magnitude involves an antinomy. But that does not seem to be
what the old atomists postulated. Relying on data in Burnet,
EarlyGreek Philosophy, p 336, I note that the Greek atoms are
mathematically (ie, logically) but not physically (ie, really)
divisible. In other words, they have conceptual but not actual
extension. Now Aristotle himself has a doctrine of atomic time
(atomos nun), Physics IV, 13, 222 . . . , and this is the exact
equivalent of the Buddhist doctrine of the moment (khana)
which has no duration but in which all accidents supervene,
and of which the succession never ceases. Similarly in the
Islamic doctrine of wagt, for which Macdonald inferred a
Buddhist origin; and the whole idea survives in the formula
God is creating the whole world now, this instant.
Very well. It seems to me that we cannot but consider at the
same time moments-without-duration and points-without-
extcnsion. Are not the latter what the old atoms imply?
Remember that they arc logically but not physically divisi
ble; so, like the moments, they have content but are not
measurable. Thus the antinomy indivisible magnitude seems
to vanish; it docs not appear that a really-indivisible-
magnitude was ever asserted. The fact that we have now
split atoms (theoretically into protons, etc, and also ex
perimentally) has no bearing on the problem; it only means that
what we called atoms were not really the same thing as the old
philosophical atoms, ie, points (Skr binduAV) without
extension though not without content. The best illustration of
such a point is afforded by the centre of the circle which has
no extension and yet in which all radii coincide. This also
would lead us to a kind of explanation of exemplarism (as I
showed in HJAS, I) and to Bonaventuras image of God as a
circle of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference
nowhere.
Moreover, just as all moments are in one sense the same
moment, so in one sense all atoms are the same atom (cf note 3
in Burnet i C); the atomic now being that which gives its
meaning to past and future (time flowing out of eternity) and
the atomic point being that which gives its meaning to
extension (space deriving from the point as size without size,
the principle of size).
PS: a minor point not connected with the above: p 273, second
and third lines of middle paragraphthe first formal can be
taken strictu sensu, but surely the second formal should read:
actual.
Very sincerely,
F. S. C. Northrop, as above.
Early Greek Philosophy, J. Burnet, London, 1930.
Vcdic Exemplarism, AKC, in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, I, 1936.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
July 25, 1946
Dear Northrop:
Your letter is of great interest, and at the least I think that we
may overcome at least such disagreements as are based on the
particular terms employed.
You cite again the Roman Catholic attitude. Does their
belief (opinion) in the exclusive perfection of Christianity
make it true? They could assimilate Aristotle; now Aristotle is
so Buddhist (phrase for phrase in many cases) that some have
assumed (as I do not) influence. In other words, much that
Aquinas did get from Aristotle (and that is plenty) he might
have got from India, if the same kind of contacts had then been
available. Some of my R.C. friends in England (one of whom
calls Sri Ramakrishna an alter Christus) are most seriously
considering, in view of the present contact, what ought to be
the future attitude of R.C. Christianity to Oriental studies.
So that I dont think my argument for real difference can be
based on the hitherto R.C. position.
I wonder if the tasting of the flower is so very different
from O, taste and see that the Lord is good? Suppose I
modified one of your sentences thus: Whatever one has
misunderstanding between peoples . . . (it is always assumed
that there is) an underlying difference in their philosophy and
their religion?
I read Jones review in the N. Y. Times Lit Sup* with inter
est. I think he hardly gets the meaning of your aesthetic
continuum. But I must not go on now. Needless to say, there
is very much in your book that I greatly admire and fully agree
with, and our discussion of points of disagreement in no way
diminishes that.
Very sincerely,
^Presumably the New York Times Book review, the Literary Supplement being
a weekly section of the Times of London.
F. S. C. Northrop, as above.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
July 28, 1946
Dear Northrop:
I have no longer any strong objection to your phrase
indeterminate aesthetic continuum, since although the East
like the West is always pointing out that the eye cannot see
itself, still finds it unavoidable to use such expressions as
seeing, tasting, knowing, etc, with reference to the
ultimate reality, as regards the actual phrase disinterested
aesthetic contemplation (taken, of course, from current
Western usage) I have nearly always put it in quotes, and more
than once said that as it stands it represents an antinomy,
disinterested and aesthetic being really incompatibles.
After all, as the primary application of language is to temporal
things, one is obliged, as all expositors have recognized, to
use empirical analogies.
Christian Logos and Father correspond to Mitravarunau or
parapara Brahmanthe two natures predicated by both West
and East. The Father is the Godhead. Eckharts free as the
Godhead in its non-existence is Nirvana, the unborn,
unmade, unbecome, incomposite, which if it were not, there
would be no way of escape from the born, made, composite. I
do not see in what sense you can say that the Father transcends
Nirvana unless you mean simply that the Christian regards it
for some reason as a preferable concept. One must not
overlook the Fathers impassibility.
Again, Logos = sabda Brahman, Father = asabda Brah
man (sabada = sound, utterance: asabda = silent, unuttered.
Very sincerely,
F. S. C. Northrop, as above.
To MR HUSZAR
August 8, 1947
Dear Mr Huszar:
I read your paper with pleasure and am very glad you are
presenting it; and I like your choice of a spruchwort from Andre
Gidc. I have often referred to the provincial limitation of
Hutchins position, eg, in my speech at Kenyon College last
year and in Am I My Brothers Keeper? But these people arc
almost immovable, as I know from correspondence with and
protests made to the Dean of St Johns College and the Editor
of the Great Books. In contrast, my own habitual method is
to treat the terms of the common universe of discourse in a
worldwide context; eg, my Symplcgadcs in Studies . . . of
fered in Homage to George Sarton . . . , 1947, and in Time and
Eternity, Ascona, Switzerland, 1947.
I know of no better study of the level at which international
contacts should be made than Marco Pallis Peaks and Lamas.
Very sincerely,
Mr Huszar is not identified.
St Johns College, in its list of Hundred Best Books prescribed for its
students did not include even one work from East of Suez and despite
protests from both students and AKC, did not alter the list.
Am I My Brothers Keeper?, New York, 1947; see Bibliography.
Peaks and Lamas, see Bibliography.
To WALLACE BROCKWAY
July 29, 1946
Dear Mr Brockway:
In reply to yours of July 15, received today; I feel compelled
to say what I have often said before, that I am Tuly apallcd by
the provincialism which can [be seen] at St Johns College and
in your series of Great Books; it is an aspect of the extremely
isolationist tendencies of American education in practice at the
present day, despite all the lip-service to the One World idea.
I consider that for the kind of education we are considering,
that to be cosmopolitan in the best sense of the word it is
indispensable for the European to be acquainted with not only
the great books in spoken Western languages, and Latin and
Greek; but also with the great books of the whole East; or if we
speak of language (as distinct from the books to be known in
translation), then I would say that a European is not educated in
the full meaning of the word if he cannot read both Latin and
Greek and at least one of the classical languages of the East,
Arabic, Sanskrit, or Chinese. Conversely, the time has come
for orientals to read Greek. That you ask me, supposedly an
Orientalist, to be of any assistance in your immediate problem
illustrates what I am saying; such assistance from me is only
possible because I am familiar with the Western as well as the
Eastern traditions, or putting this in terms of languages,
because I do read Latin and Greek and the chief spoken
European languages.
I will consider whether there is anything further that I can
do. In the meantime, in the Bibliographies for Art, and for
Beauty, I suggest that my own books, The Transformation of
Nature in Art (Harvard University Press, 1934), Why Exhibit
Works of Art? (Luzac, London, 1943) and Figures of Speech or
Figures of Thought? (Luzac, London, 1946)which latter
includes long translations from St Thomas and Ulrich. There
are prescribed reading in some University courses. In the
preface to the last mentioned I wrote: Whoever makes use of
these three books and of the sources referred to in them will
have a fairly complete view of the doctrine about art that the
greater part of mankind has accepted from prehistoric times
until yesterday.
I put forward no new theories of my own; but I do say that
without a knowledge of the material I deal with, the pathetic
fallacy in the teaching of art history is inevitable, and as
inevitable as it is rampant. I add that under the heading of
Nature should certainly be included R. C. Collingwoods
Philosophy of Nature. Re Art, see also the Bibliography in my
Why Exhibit Works of Art? (Luzac, London, 1943, p 59). Other
suggestions will come to mind, no doubt, but in the meanwhile
perhaps you will be kind enough to send on those above to Mr
Bcrnick.
Very sincerely,
Wallace Brockway was with Encyclopaedia Britlanica at the time.
Why Exhibit Works of Art? was later reissued under the title, Christian and
Oriental Philosophy of Art\ see Bibliography.
To GRETCHEN WARREN
August 8, 1946
Dear Grctchcn:
I have been looking at Collingwoods Idea of Nature, pp. 19-27,
and see nothing alarming. I think Whitehead is quite right in
saying there is no nature (scire licet, natura naturata), in an
instant (ie, mathematical instant containing no time lapse at
all). Also, according to modern physics nothing whatever
would be left if all movement were to stop is obviously so
because motion and existence are only two names of the
same thing. One trouble for men like Collingwood is that
they do not start by clearly defining the distinction between
existence (ex alio sistens) and essence (in seipso sistens); so that it is
not always clear what they mean by existence. Existence is
always in some way and in some time observable, essence
never. All existence is summed up in essence, which is
nothing, ie, no one of those things that exist and all of
which are perishable composites.
Men feel that what cannot be put in terms of time is
meaningless . . . [but] the notion of a static immutable being
ought to be understood rather as signifying a process (or an
energy, which is a better word), so intensely vivacious, in
terms of time as extremely swift, so as to comprise beginning
and end at one stroke (W. H. Sheldon in Modern Schoolman,
XXI, 133). Plus laviedumoi sidentifieavec laviedunoti-moi (le
Soi), plus on t>it intensement (Abdul Hadi).
Past and future are to thee a veil from God . . . cast fire on
both (Rumi, Mathnawi, I, 2201-2). God: ubi futurumet
praeteritumcoincidunt cumpraesenti (Nicholas of Cusa, Devis Dei,
C.x), as also in Buddhism, of the Arahant, Freedman,
Immortal, for him there is neither past nor future (S. 1.141).
Whoever finds the Now of Eternity (containing. xo
time-lapse at all) finds nothing and all thingsall at once,
not in a succession. Present vision of all that ever has been or
shall be in the endless succession of past and future aeons can
hardly be thought of as an empty life, though it be void of
things in the sense that we experience them in succession,
where they never stop to be, and we lose them as soon as we
have them, ie, instantly, which is the very tragedy of
existence.
AKC
Gretchen Warren, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
To ALDOUS HUXLEY
August 10, 1944
Dear Mr Huxley:
Yours of August 4 reached me just after I had sent off to you
my little tract on Recollection, etc.
I do not understand what could be meant by becoming a
good Catholic for the sake of Christian bhakti. Surely, one
only accepts a body of doctrine (such as that of the philosophia
perennis) because of its self authenticating intelligibility and
because it explains more things than are explained elsewhere. I
quite agree that as a rule (to which there are individual
exceptions) it is undesirable to exchange one religion for
another. Bhakti is a general proposition, not to be connected
exclusively with Christ or Krishna. The point is sine desiderio
mens non intelligit. This applies to an understanding of reality
by whatever name we call It. Granted that jnana, karma and
bhakti (the latter being love or loyalty, but literally participation)
arc in a hierarchy; this does not mean that they are mutually
exclusive; even Sankaracarya worshipped. Which of the
three must predominate is a question of individual talent. All
arc legitimate, and all can be misused. Your own feeling about
Kali is, as I see it, a purely sentimental reaction, quite as
dangerous as any kind of devotion, however blind; one who
loves God really, loves Him in His darkness and His light.
I cant agree that art is mysterious; it is no more
mysterious than anything else. Art is a kind of knowledge
about how things, which it has been decided are desiderate, can
be made. It is mainly modern aesthetics that has thrown a veil
of mystery over art, just as modern sentimentality has
made a fool of prudence (so to speak), by treating it not as a
means to an end. The differentiation of styles is nothing but an
example of the working of the principle that nothing can be
known but in the mode of the knowcr.
Your Common Father book, if it really deals with
dogmatic equivalents, and not merely with the general agree
ment that one must be good, sweet child, should be
valuable. I have myself collected an enormous amount of
parallels, and cited very many in my articles; in fact,
generally speaking, I dislike to expound any doctrine (such as
that of the single essence and the two natures, or that of lila or
any symbolism (such as that of light, or the chariot, or the
Symplcgades) from single sources only. There is, however,
the difficulty, that one cannot, generally speaking, trust
existing translations; and one docs not know enough languages
to be able to check on everything.
With kind regards,
Postscript to above letter:
You did not let me know whether Marco Pallis book reached
you. My wife adds: your distrustful words about bhakti would be
understandable if you were a Roman Catholic, faced with the
pale and ovcrswect Catholicism of these times. Indeed, the
R C Church is imitating the Protestant churches of the modern
world, and is not itself* Even Thomism is only halfway back,
so to speak, to Meister Eckhart, and The Cloud of Unknowing.
Perhaps the Greek Church is still poor enough to be as clean as
one can be in this environment. For you, it ought to be no
longer a question of Christ or Krishna, but of a Principle that
assumes every name by which His worshippers address Him.
We so much admire Grey Eminence that we cannot but regret
the times when your feelings (taste) intervene. If I have learnt
anything, it is never to think (will) for myself. In all these
things my only will is to understand.
* If this was true in 1944, it is a fortiori true today, after the more than sixty
year debacle that has followed.
Aldous Huxley, popular novelist whose fashionableness peaked between the
two World Wars. Later in his career he turned to non-fiction and wrote Grey
Eminence, The Perennial Philosophy, etc.
Recollection, Indian and Platonic, published as a Supplement to the Journal
of the American Oriental Society, LXIV, no. 2, 1944.
To ALDOUS HUXLEY
September 28, 1944
Dear Mr Huxley:
I should like to begin by making it very clear that I fully
agree with you that Charity (maitri, not karuna, however) is
indispensable for Enlightenment; nor am I any exception to the
rule that no one has ever hinted that because the end is beyond
good and evil, the means may be so. I further agree with the
transcendent and immanent point of view, and with the
distinction of God from Godhead, in nature but not in essence.
What I do not agree with is your apparent assumption that
practitioners of human sacrifice arc necessarily uncharitable.
I am aware that that would be a Buddhist point of view. That it
would also be a Christian point of view is metaphysically
explicable by the fact that in the particular Christian formula
tion, the sacrifice has been made once for all; that is why, while
it is necessary for Moslems to make all killing of animals for
food a sacrificial rite (the same for the Jews), this is not
necessary for Christians. In the same way, I would not at all
agree that the warriors dharma is necessarily uncharitable or,
for that matter, the hunters; these ways would be uncharitable
if followed by a Brahman, but not if followed by a Ksatriya. It is
all a matter of convenience (in the technical sense of the
word). At the same time I need hardly say that the fact that we
are too compassionate to practice human sacrifice, or some
times even to hunt, makes all the more contemptible our
reckless disregard of the value of human life (I am referring to
the industrial system in which things arc more highly valued
than the men who produce them) and our willingness to
vivisect animals to save our own skins, as we imagine. I should
say that the Aztec was truer to his Way than we are to ours.
I do not approach the great tradition, as you seem to do, to
pick and choose in them what seems to me to be right; all
coercion repels me, but who am I to pass judgement upon those
who must use force, and are only at fault if they do so
incorrcctly? No Way can be judged in isolation without regard
to the environment it presupposes. On this point there is a very
good Indian story of a Brahman who maintained the service of
a Siva Lingam, to which he made offerings only of flowers,
water and chant. It was in the deep woods. One day a hunter,
who filled with devotion likewise, had in his own way placed
on the Lingam pieces of raw flesh of his prey. The Brahman
was infuriated, abused the hunter, and threw away his
offerings. Suddenly Siva appeared, and graciously accepting
the hunters, offering, pointed out to the Brahman that the
hunters devotion had been no less than his own, and that he,
the Brahman, had given way to anger. We cannot judge of
what is right for others, but only of what is right for us.
I am going to quote again from the friend from whom I have
quoted before regarding your position:
One part of him wishes to be free, but the other part insists
on making a number of reservations. . . . One hoped that
Grey Eminence marked a more serious step in the direction of
seeking a guru. It is apparent that what he needs most of all is
an element of bhakti for the simple reason that though he does
genuinely hanker after the truth and a unified existence, he
fears to trust himself boldly into the hands of his aspiration; it
is indeed abandonment that is still most lacking in his
attempt, due to regret at having to give up so much that is
taken for granted in the modern world . . . hence the
electicism which seeks to express itself in anthologiesone
can be almost sure that though the quotations he will select
will be fine in themselves, the choice will be influenced
unduly by private preferences and dislikes. For instance,
texts enjoining an attitude of ahimsa are more likely to be
snapped up voraciously while the complementary texts
connected with, say, jihad are as likely to be rejected as being
uninspired; so also the traditions in which non-violence plays
a great part such as the Gospels or Buddhism, will appeal to
him, but he will find it difficult to sympathize impartially
with warrior or hunting cultures. . . . He also continues to
trust far too much to his powers of extracting the meaning of
doctrines through a mere reading of texts. It is quite true, as
Guenon said somewhere, that he who knows can often detect
the real sense of a text even under the disguise of modern
distortions; but this is quite impossible for one who trusts to
his academic training alone.
I shall send you shortly a paper of Schuons on the Three
Margas and am only sorry I have no copy of his important
article on Sacrifice that I can send. I hope you duly received
On the One and Only Transmigrant (which is mainly
apropos of immanence).
Very sincerely,
Aldous Huxley, as above.
Marco Pallis, personal correspondence.
On the One and Only Transmigrant, Supplement to the Journal of the
American Oriental Society, LXIV, no 2.
Frithjof Schuon, see Appendix.
To ALDOUS HUXLEY
August 29, 1944
Dear Mr Huxley:
My adherence to the Traditional Philosophy is because it
explains more in every field of thought than do any of our
systemic philosophies; it can, indeed, explain everything, or
account for everything, to the extent that explanations are
logically possible. In the various religions this philosophy is
translated into the modes of the knowers.
Let us take it for granted that goodor rather, correct
conduct is essential to Wayfaring; and also that evil is a
non-entityas our word naught-y, German untat, and
Sanskrit a-sat (as evil) imply, the suppositio being that ens et
bonum convertuntur. I still maintain that your attitude, in
wanting to have a good God, and therefore finding the
problem of evil so difficult, is sentimental. But Wayfaring- is
one thing, and the Goal another. The Buddha and Meister
Eckhart (among others) are in absolute agreement that the Goal
is beyond good and evil; cf Dhammapada 412 (he is a monk,
indeed, who has abandoned good and evil); and cf Dante, Purg
18.67-69, those who in their reasoning went to the founda
tions beheld this interior freedom, therefore they left moralita to
the world; and Rumi (Nicholsons translation, Ode VIII, to
the man of God, right and wrong are alike). The problem of
good and evil, in other words, pertains to the active life
alone. In our correspondence I have ventured to assume we
were discussing rather the truth itself than its application.
The supreme example of bringing good out of evil is that of
creatio ex nihilo. Here the nihil is potentiality, possibility (always
evil when contrasted with being in act) but also that without
which no act could be, since the impossible never happens.
One must bear in mind that all these technical terms have a
double application; thus non-being as privation of being is evil,
but a non-being that implied only freedom from the limitation
of being in any mode is not an evil, and we find Meister
Eckhart using the words free as the God-head in its
non-existence. The God of the traditional doctrines is the
Supreme Identity of God and Godhead, Essence and Nature,
Being and Non-being, Light and Darkness, Sacerdotium and
Regnum. In creation and under the Sun these potentially
distinguishable contraries interact, and a world composite from
them is brought into being ex principio conjuncto. So (as explicit
in Islam), Heaven and Hell arc the reflections of the divine
Mercy and Majesty, Love and Wrath, Spirit and Law. Both are
the same fire; but as Boehme so often says, whether of
Heaven or Hell depending upon ourselves, whether we are or
are not salamanders. We have not, then, known or loved
God as He is in Himself, but only an aspect of God, unless
both in his light and darkness.
On the doctrine of sacrifice, I recommend Frithjof Schuons
discussion in Etudes Traditionnelles.
I am a humanitarian (an anti-vivisectionist, for example),
but I do not feel a horror of animal or even human sacrifice; I
recognize, of course, that it may not be convenient (becom
ing, right, proper) for us to practice either. At the same time, I
very strongly suspect that this is not a matter of our superior
virtue, and that all we have done is to secularize sacrifice (of
animals in the laboratory; and of men in the financial-
commercial state, in the factory, or on the battle field).
Regarding art, I do not myself see that Mayan art is devoid of
sensuality. As for stylistic permanence or change: one must, of
course, distinguish style from iconography; the latter can
persist indefinitely, and even long after.its reasons are no longer
understood, the former always changes, so that even in what
seem to be the most static cultures, works of art can be closely
dated on stylistic grounds, if we know enough. There is no
inherent necessity for iconographic change, because the forms
may be correct; accordingly in a living tradition one expects
Platos new songs, but not new kinds of music. It is our
sensitive rather than our intellectual nature that demands
novelties; for the intellect, originality is all that is required.
You still did not let me know whether you received from
Marco Pallis his book, which he had sent you; I would like to
be able to inform him, as he wanted to send you another copy if
the first had gone astray.
Very sincerely,
PS: A few addenda of remarks that might have been included
above: the Buddhas emphatic enunciation of a goal beyond
good and evil docs not, of course, prevent him from asserting
with equal emphasis that there is an ought to be done and
an ought not to be done. We are responsible for what we do
so long as we hold that we are the doers.
In gnosis, the fall of man is his knowledge of good and evil;
his regeneration therefore, obviously, to a primordial state
beyond good and evil, or state of innocence, ie, of
harmlessness. What we call evil is as ncccssary as is what we
call good to the perfection of the universe, which can only exist
in terms of contrasts. The shadow as well as the highlight is
necessary to the pictureso St Augustine (Con/ VII. 13;
Erigena, M. Bett, p 71; Rumi, Legacyof Islam, p 234).
Aldous Huxley, as above.
Frithjof Schuon, see Appendix.
Marco Pallis, as above, p 26
To GERALD VANN, OP
February 26, 1947
Dear Gerald Vann, OP:
I agree with you (in current Blackfriars) that Huxleys
philosophia perennis is transitional. I myself have collected
much more, and I think much more impressive material, for
the most part directly from Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Pali and
other sources.
But you say Christian self-naughting is in order to be
reborn; but that the Eastern is not so. Who told you this about
the East? Do you know the texts at first hand? If not, have you
any right at all to make such statements?
As to Tat Tvam Asi, there is an extensive Indian literature by
authoritative exegetes discussing at length the meaning of each
of these words. Arc you familiar with it?
A Roman Catholic friend of mine is devoting at least ten
years to self preparation for writing on what is to be the attitude
of Roman Catholics to Eastern religions as now better
understood than formerly. For this purpose, in addition to the
Latin and Greek he already knows, he has learned Sanskrit.
I consider it morally irresponsible to make statements
(especially negative ones) about any other religion of which
one docs not have at least some firsthand knowledge. For
example, to know anything seriously about Hinduism or
Buddhism, you must have searched their scriptures as
Christians do their Bible, not to mention the great commentar
ies in both cases.
Very sincerely,
Gerald Vann, OP, Blackfriars School, Laxton, England
Blackfriars, a monthly review published by the Dominican Order (Order of
Preachers) in England
Aldous Huxley, as above
Bernard Kelly, identified on p 20.
To MISS ELIZABETH HEIMAN
December 30, 1938
Dear Miss Heimann:
It occurs to me to add that one must distinguish between
contraries and mutually exclusive opposites without reciprocity.
It is the former that are coincident on a level of reference above
them both (and which is represented on our level by the
mean). It is only possible that can thus coincide; eg, being
and non-being. Whereas the opposite of possible, viz, the
impossible, has no existence anywhere (even in divinis), as is
expressed in Christian doctrine by saying that God cannot act
against his own nature (which is one of possibility). St
Thomas himself observes in this connection that being and
nonbeing arc contradictory in themselves, but if we refer them
to the act of the mind there is something positive in both cases
(cf here Udana 80: there is a not-bccomc, atthi . . . abhutam)-,
and the things are no longer mutually exclusive in intellect,
because one is the reason for knowing the other (Sum Theol I-II,
64.3; cf 54,2 ad 1 and 35, 5 ad 2). It is precisely for this reason
that primative languages (which proceed from a level of
reference above dialectic) have roots and words that subsume
contrary meanings: of which we have a survival in such words
as reward which may imply a good or an evil, though our
mentality tends more and more to restrict the meaning of such
wordsreward, for example, generally meaning a good. We
call this kind of limitation clear thinking, and refer the
original ambivalence to a pre-logical mentality. Prior to
logic, perhaps, as principles arc prior to their consequences
(and as the Middle Ages understood in principio)-, but let us not
forget that for India at least, logic (nyaya) is only one point of
view (darsana), and by no means the most profound.
Very sincerely,
Miss Elizabeth Heimann, London, England
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
August 27, 1942
Sir,
I cannot agree with Captain Ludovici about everything. But I
should like to say that he is absolutely right in saying that
values and truth are in different departments of knowledge.
This holds good even in the field of empirical knowledge,
where what we know factually about any phenomenon, social
or otherwise, is independent of the values, moral or aesthetic
that we may associate with it.
Far more significant, however, is the principle that values,
which always arrive in pairs (good and evil, long and short, etc)
are always relative to the evaluator, and truth, considered
absolutely, ie, in divinis, belong to two different worlds. In
other words, God as He is in Himself, definable only by
negations, and not as we conceive Him in our own likeness,
does not value. At this point the line is drawn between religion
(which takes account of values) and metaphysics (which, like
Socrates daimon, that vulgar fellow, cares for nothing but the
truth). But even the religionsall of themrecognize that
there is a reality or truth transcending values; however
temporally (but not eternally) important these values may be as
dispositive to, or even pre-requisite to, grasp of the reality of
that final truth.
It is of course, dangerous to publish such a doctrine,
however true; it has happened more than once, both in Europe
and in Asia, that men have argued (always, of course,
heretically) that it does not matter what I do, right and wrong
being only matters of preference. The catch lies, of course, in
the words I and preference; since for so long as we hold
that I am the doer and for as long as we entertain any
preferences whatever, we cannot shake off the burden of
responsibility. God has no preferences; and can have none, for
if He had, that would mean that He had something to gain by
action, which is excluded by hypothesis. It is only those who
are no longer anyone and have no preferences, who have a right
to look upon good and evil without approbation or disapproval.
I have said above that all scripture is agreed that there is a
beyond good and evil. This could be shown at great length by
citation of chapter and verse from the scriptures of three
millenia and many lands. To be brief, Meister Eckhart says of the
summum bonum that there neither good nor evil ever entered
in. For St Thomas Aquinas, morality is, indeed essential to the
active life, but only dispositive to the contemplative and higher
life. In the same way, Buddhism is not an ethical doctrine
essentially but only accidentally. The Buddha affirms very
vigorously that there is an Ought to be done and an Ought
not to be done, but in the Parable of the Raft, points out that a
man who has reached land at the end of his voyage does not
carry the ship about on his back but leaves it on the shore; and
in the Dhammapada he defines a true Brahman, not the
Brahman by birth, but one who has abandoned all attachment
to good and evil. St Augustine says God forbid that we should
still use the Law as a means of arrival when we have arrived.
And Meister Eckhart, in almost verbal agreement with the
Buddha, says that having gotten to the other side, I no longer
need a ship. It is rather a pity that a doctrine of beyond good
and evil should be so closely and exclusively connected with
Ncitzschc in our minds! Captain Ludovicis opponent hardly
seems to realize that he is, in effect, defending a doctrine of
salvation by works and merit, forgetting that we must be
judged, at last, not by what we have done, but by what we are.
AKC
The Dhammapada is perhaps the most popular element of the Pali canon. It
consists of 423 verses, forms part of the Sutta-pitaka, and dates from well
before the beginning of the Christian era. Many translations are available.
To HELEN CHAPIN
January 16, 1946
Dear Helen:
No time to answer at length at present as I have to prepare
lectures for fixed dates. But about the unreality of evil: this
follows from the accepted axiom ensat bonumconvertuntur. That
is also why our English word naught-y means bad, just as
Sanskrit a-sat, not-being, also is equivalent to evil. It
implies that all sins are sins of ommission, not acts, but things
not-done (Skr atertam), a point of view exactly preserved in
German untat, crime. Or as in the case of darkness and
lightdarkness is not a positive principle, but only the absence of
light: or as" a lie is not a "false fact but simply a not-fact or an
un-truth. Youll soon get used to seeing this!
As to your possessions, of course, the best is [to] get them
where they can be used and appreciated.
Congratulations on the prospect of going to the East!
Very sincerely,
Helen Chapin, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
October 1942
Sir,
. . . I think Mr Massingham (in your issue Sept. 24, p. 187)
does not quite sec that this is a world of contrasts, and that there
could not be any other kind of world. Hence a duality and
opposition of good and evil in the world (under the sun) is
inevitable. To realize this does not make one a dualist. A
radical correction of corrupt primary and secondary instincts
by intellect is, if I understand it rightly, just what Plato means
when he speaks of rectifying the modes of thought in our
heads, which were distorted at our birth, by an understanding
of the cosmic harmonies and motions, so that by an assimila
tion of the knower to the to-be-known in its primordial nature,
and having come to be in this likeness, we may attain at last to
that lifes best that has been appointed by the Gods to man for
this time being and hereafter (Timmaeus 90 D, cf 47 C), and in
many other contexts in which he speaks of self-rule as the
government of the worse part in us (the impulses and instincts)
by the best part (reason).
We must bear in mind, however, that intellect like
reason is one of the many terms of which the meaning has
been lessened and degraded for us. In the traditional theology,
Intellect is equated with spirit and is not at all what we
may for convenience call mentality or what we mean by
reason, something a long way under Platos Logos! All
tradition assumes a duality of mind, which is both human
and divine; correction is of the former by the latter, and it is to
this rectification that the word metanoia, which we render by
rcpcntence, but which is really change of mind, refers. I
assert that this is the true traditional line.
AKC
To PROFESSOR MEYER SCHAPIRO
Octobcr 19, 1932
Dear Professor Schapiro:
Many thanks for your letter. My understanding would be
that as adequatio is in epistcmology, so consonnantia is in
aesthetic; these terms corresponding to sariipya (conformity)
and sadrsya (con-visibility). It seems to me that Scholastic
and Oriental theory are in complete agreement that complete
knowledge and being arc one and the same: this being
(csscncc) representing the condition of reconciliation between the
objective as it is in itself and the subjective as it is in us, neither
of these possessing a reality of the same order as that of their
common principle. This applies equally to knowledge (truth)
and art (beauty): ratio pulchri est quadam consonantia diuersorum.
Whether or not this is the doctrine actually taught is, of course,
a matter for investigation: apart from that, I feel it to be true.
Now as to constatation: I cannot understand the idea of a
good world picture, or any world picture that is not made up
of contrasts. Put otherwise, how can the primal pulse of being
be thought of otherwise than as simultaneous spiration and
dcspiration, extroversion and introversion, etc? (Expressed in
religious terms, He makes his sun to shine alike upon the just
and the unjust: or Indian, The Lord accepts neither the good
nor the evil works of any man.) This is from the point of view
of the absolute Self (not empirical Ego); good and evil, wisdom
and folly, are equally acceptable, there being no distinction
between necessity and tolerability. On the other hand, from the
standpoint of the empirical Ego situated at a given here and
now, there will be an inevitable bias in favour of good or evil,
introversion or controversion, etc. What is most important is
not so much what the position is as whether the individual is
conscious of his position. Any judgement of good or evil is to
be sure a matter of taste, ie, the healthy individual will always
approve of what corresponds to his own nature. Whether or
not naturalistic is a correct characterisation of a style in
question is another matter: by naturalistic I do not so much
mean photographic in a bad sense (incidentally, I have
myself practised photography as an art]), as extrovert and
superficial (in the etymological rather than the derogatory
sense of the word). And if in the said period aesthetic has been
idealistic this seems to me to represent a sentimentality,
parallel to that of the Pollyanna religious which dispose of
matter and evil by asserting the only reality of the soul and [the]
good.
I may add that in Indian logic, sadrsya is defined as identity in
differencesee Das Gupta, Hist of Indian Philosophy. I, 318and
sarupya in epistemology as sameness (ibid, 154). It seems to me
that these two terms, as also consonantia and adequatio exclude
both objectivity and subjectivity.
I have not yet read through Culture and Crisis, but of course
agree with much that is there said. Still, the only way in which I
have complete faith is that of the regeneration or perfecting of
the individual.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Meyer Schapiro, Columbia University, New York, New York,
USA.
To MISS JENKS
November 18, 1945
Dear Miss Jenks:
About negation: in the first place, as Sankaracarya says,
Whenever we deny something unreal, it is with reference to
something real (examples: independence; im-mortality; a-
pathetic, ie, not pathetic; im-passible; in-effableall of which
are positive concepts, and unlike the denials of value implied by
such other expressions as un-stable, un-worthy, un-clean,
where it is a matter of real privation: one must not be
deceived by the merely grammatical likeness of the terms). On
the general subject of significant negation see Wilbur Urban,
The Intelligible World (N Y, 1929, pp 452-53). If God is
ineffable, in-finite, these denials that anything ultimately true
can be said of Him, and of spatial /imitation, are not derogatory!
Hence there has always been recognized in Christian exegesis,
as well as elsewhere, the necessity for the two viae, of
affirmation and of denial, to be followed in sequential
order.
From the point of view of the active life, our ex-istence is
important; but from that of the contemplative life (which I need
hardly say is, from the Christian and whole traditional point of
view the ultimately superior life, though both are necessary and
right, here and now), in the words of Christ, Let him deny
himself (Mark VIII 13, 14; cf TheCloudof Unknowing, chap
44: All men have matter of sorrow: but most specially he
fecleth matter of sorrow that wotteth and feeleth that he is. . . .
This sorrow, when it is had, cleancth the soul, not only of sin,
but also of pain. . .and . . . able to receive that joy, the which
rceveth from a man all witting and feeling of his being)that
he may affirmMe, for whosoever shall deny Me. . . .
(Matthew X, 34-39). St Paul had denied himself, and affirmed
Christ, when he said I live, not I, but Christ inme. That is
what a Hindu means by liberation (moksa). In this connec
tion, by the way, you asked me about catharsis (purgation); I
would say that the Hindu concept, which is expressed in terms
of cleansing or washing (cf, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst
make me clean) corresponds much more to Platos than to
Aristotles katharsis; Platos definition being separation of the
soul from the body as far as that is possible; and Aristotles, I
confess, a little dubious to me for it seems to imply not much
more than having a good cry, and feeling better.
Regarding Buddhism (Hinayana), negative propositions
predominate because the doctrine is essentially monastic,
whereas Hinduism embraces both the ordinary and the
extraordinary norms of existence, and is both affirmative
and negative accordingly. Thus (early) Buddhism is not strictly
comparable in all respects cither to the Hinduism from which it
developed, or with Christianity; that is, not strictly comparable
in total scope. Since it considers only mans last end.
For negation in Western religious tradition (disregarding the
similar formulae in Islam and Hinduism just now) cf: My
kingdom is not of this world; and if any man thinketh that he
knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to
know (I Cor VIII, 2); Thou of whpm no words can tell,
whom only silence can declare (Hermetica I, 17); Knowest
thou of Him anything? He is no such thing (Eckhart); God
himself does not know what He is, because He is not any what
(Erigena); If anyone in seeing God conceivcs something in his
mind, this is not God, but one of Gods effects (Aquinas, Sum
Theol III. 92, 1 ad 4); To know God as He is, we must be
absolutely free from knowing (Eckhart, of Cusas Docta
ignorantia, a good illustration of the ambiguity of symbols,
ignorance bearing here its good sense). Much more of the
like could be cited from Dante. I do not understand how
anyone can claim to be a Christian who resents the idea of a
kingdom not of this world; and it seems to me heretical (ie,
not knowing what is true, but thinking what one likes to
think, ic, wishfully) to reject the Christian tradition of the via
negativa, and at the same time for a Christian disingeniously to
cavil at the use of the same method (metodos, procedure) in
Islam and other religions. Finally, the greater part of the
criticisms that Christians commonly make of other religions
are based on imperfect, ie, second hand knowledge, and to a
certain extent therefore are intellectually dishonest. In fact, they
know Christianity positively, and the others only negative
ly. Under these circumstances, silence would be golden.
How many European scholars arc reasonably equippedI refer
to a knowledge of, at least, either Arabic, Sanskrit, or
Chineseor failing that, then at least long and intimate
personal association with the followers of other religions.
Cf. . . Sir George Birdwood in Sva (Oxford, 1919, pp 17-
23), ending: Henceforth I knew that there were not many
gods of human worship, but one God only, who was
polyonymous and polymorphous, being figured and named
according to the variety of the outward conditions of things,
ever changing and everywhere different, and unceasingly
modifying our inward conceptions of themreminding one
of Philos words: But, if He exists whom with one accord all
Greeks and Barbarians acknowledge together. . . . (Spec II,
165) thus ascribing monotheism to all pagans as Goodenough
comments. I might add, compare the history of religious
persecution in Europe with the almost total abscnse . . .
[there-of] in India where there was, of course, plenty of
religious controversy.
In an orthodox Indian family, it can quite easily happen that
different members of the family may choose different Gods,
ic, different aspects of God, differently named, and no one
thinks this strange. I . . . think it a state of spiritual infancy to
claim exclusive truth for ones own religion (which one has
usually inherited willy-nilly, being born a little Catholic, a
little Protestant, a little Jew, or a little Muslim); one has only
the right to feel that my religion is true, not that yours is
untrue. All this does not. . . exclude the possibility of heresy,
which may arise in any religious context; the reasonable thing is
for those who are interested in the truth . . . to discuss the
truth of particular doctrines, about which agreement
can . . . generally be reached. I . . . hardly ever set out to
explain a particular doctrine from the point of view of one
tradition only, but cite authorities from many ages and sources;
by particular doctrines, I mean, of course, such as that of the
one essence and two natures, and many others about which
there is, in fact, universal agreement.
Very sincerely,
Miss Jenks is not further identified.
To ERIC GILL
March 6, 1934
Dear Eric:
I was glad to have yours of February 16. I hear from Carey
that there is still a possibility of your coming over; if so, I hope
you will manage to spend a week with us.
Yes, I think the ideas of personality and void can be
reconciledsomewhat as the affirmative and negative theology
can be. One might begin with no one can be my disciple who
does not hate animamsuam, and St Pauls I live, yet not I, but
Christ in me, and the word of God . . . extends to the
sundering of soul and spirit, going on to the Thomist
memory belongs to the sensitive faculty and only the
intellectual virtues (ie, spiritual) survive, and to TheCloud
of Unknowing: the greatest sorrow that a man can feel is to
realise that he is, and Eckharts the soul must put herself to
death as the kingdom of God is for none but the thoroughly
dead, and other such passages showing that the Christian
should not be unduly alarmed at the use of the negative
phraseologies in, eg, Buddhism. Then one could take Diony
sius Divine DarknessDark by excess of Light, and his and
the Thomist non-being, and the idea of God as nothing, nihil, ie,
no one thing or aggregate of things, void of thingness; as
Erigena states, God himself does not know what He is,
because He is not any what .
From the other side one could take the negative terms and
demonstrate their unlimited content (which can be illus
trated by 0 equals 1minus 1; 2 minus 2, etc, the plus and minus
numbers corresponding to all the pairs of opposities which
determine our human experience.
The individualism of the current philosophy of life is
equally un-Christian and un-Buddhistto cling to the I in
this sense is to cling to a bad master and to forget the Master in
whose service alone there is perfect freedom. Every degree of
freedom is a degree of emancipation from the psycho-physical
ego, a degree in the realisation of the spiritual personwho, the
more it approaches the likeness of God (by ablatio omnis
alteritatis, Cusa) can best be described, like Him, only in
negative terms!
Much love from Ananda,
Eric Gill, identified on p 82; see also the opening lines of the Introduction.
Carey, i.e. Graham Carey; see p 43
To MR F. A. CUTTAT
April 8, 1943
My dear M. Cuttat:
It was a pleasure to receive your very kind letter, and I am
happy to know that my papers reached, and interested, you.
As to tamas: I am glad that we are agreed that prakriti cannot
be equated with rajas. For the rest, I think you are right in
saying that the gunas must be analogically represented in diuinis,
and that by inversion tamas would be the highest. It should be,
in fact, the Divine Darkness of Dionysius, and the object of
the contemplatio in caligine. We have an exact parallel in
non-being, which is evil as that which has not yet come
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An example of Coomaraswamys manuscriptsletter to Eric Gill
into being, but superior to being itself when it means that
which is not limited by any affirmative definition. All values
are thus reversible, and from this point of view the celestial
powers of darkness are superior to the cosmic powers of light.
The Janitors of the empyrean arcanum are demons to us,
because they keep us out; but good from the standpoint of the
deity ab intra, to whom none may enter unless qualified.
Your mention of Scorpio (who was originally a celestial
Janitor) is curious, because I am just now working at the
iconography of Sagittarius (another Janitor) in which that of the
Scorpion-man is also involved. These types were originally the
guardians of the door (Jama Coeli) of the abode of Anu (=
Varuna) and of Tammuz (= Soma) that grew in Anus garden.
The Tree was robbed by the Firebird (Aquila) in order that
we might have life, and ultimately eternal life. Scorpio is one
of the equivalents of the Cherubim who keep the way of the
Tree of Life in Genesis, where the flaming sword that turns
every way is an example of the widely diffused type of the
active door. The guardians are evil from our present point of
view, who are shut out, but not more absolutely so that St
Peter who keeps out those who have no right to enter. It is in
the same sense that pearls are to be witheld from swine. (This
reminds me of a definition I have heard of universal compul
sory education: false pearls cast before real swine!) Hence I
think you are right in saying that tamas can be associated with
ananda as its locus (loka)\ indeed, the analogy serves to explain
why it is that human intercourse (which reflects the act of
fecundation latent in eternity) ought to take place only in
the dark (cf S B VI. 1, 5, 19), and to explain the covering up of
the Queen and the Stallion in the Asvamedha. Of these sufficient
metaphysical reasons our modern decency is only a weak
representative; propriety would be a better word, if under
stood in its etymological sense, and in the original sense of
decorous.
I am glad to have news of M. Guenon. I have sent him
various publications during the last two years, but do not know
if they reached him. I hear of him indirectly through Marco
Pallis. I shall be most grateful if you can, as you suggest, send
me a typescript of his new book on the quantitative and
qualitative; too often people forget that these are incompatibles!
I have just been reading Dcmetra Vakas Haremlik (Hought-
on Mifflin, New Y ork, 1909); you should get hold of it if
possible (it may be in print, and anyhow should be easily
obtainable), for it is excellent and poignant, and indeed throws
a grim light on what we call our civilisation.
With kindest regards,
Very sincerely,
F. A. Cuttat was a Swiss diplomat and at the time of this exchange was
posted to the Swiss Legation at Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The three gunas: sattvas, rajas and tamas, in Hindu cosmology, are qualities or
tendencies which exist in perfect equilibrium in the primordial substance,
prakriti (materia prima, to adapt a Scholastic term) but arc variously
combined in every manifested object; sattvas = the ascending tendency,
rajas = the expansive tendency, and tamas = the downward and compressive
tendency. See Rene Guenon, Man and His becoming According to the Vedanta,
chap iv.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt; communications between Dr Coomaraswamy
and Guenon were interrupted during the II World War. His The Reign of
Quantity and the Times was circulated in typescript form before formal
publication. See Bibliography.
Demetra Vaka, Haremlik, Some Pages from the Life of Turkish Women,
Boston, 1906.
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Dear M:
All religions arc agreed that the goal lies beyond logical
thought, beyond good and evil, beyond consciousness, and all
pairs of contraries. The Way is another matter; on the Way one
must use means; notably means of thought and discrimination,
valuation, etc. In other words, use the ordinary instruments of
thought, ie, symbols, verbal or visual. The alternative would
be not to speak of God at all, but only of what wc call facts or
sensations. The names of God vary according to the aspect or
activity considered, eg, Creator, Father, Light.
All religions assume one essence and two natures, of which
there is the Supreme Identity, without composition. The
natures are personal and impersonal, immortal and mortal,
infinite and finite, justice and love, royal and sacerdotal,
transcendent and immanent, etc.
Such arc our images; by their means one advances on the
Way. Iconoclasm presupposes iconography; it is mere vanity
for those who have not used their images until they have no
more use for them. That involves total sclf-naughting; and few
have seen God without image. We have, therefore, the via
affirmativa, or taught way; and the via negativa, or untaught way
in which he is grasped without attributes; and these distinctions
are common to all theologies. The last step, no doubt, is one of
docta ignorantia; that does not mean that there is any merit in the
indocta ignorantia of those who refuse to step at all.
In your paragraph 2, what you refer to is not the mystical
experience, but the stages of it. The highest level of reference
we can grasp from below seems to us like the goal; but it is only
a temporary goal; the ladder is very long and has many rungs
(stepping stones of our dead selves). Y et the Way is not
infinitely long; it is only incalculably long; and at the same time
so short that it can be crossed in a second, i f all is ripe for that.
Yes, any mystical experience remains for ever afterward a
pointer.
It is absurd to ask simultaneously for knowledge and for the
method of obtaining it (Aristotle, Met II.2.3). Try never
questioning the truth of scripture and myth, etcregard it as
your business simply to understand it. In that way you will find
that you are getting somewhere, and before you know it,
actually you will have some degree of knowledge. Y ou will not
reject the means until you know all that there is to be known.
That is the sine qua non for unknowing.
The best European teacher is Meister Eckhart; supremely
exact.
Buddhism and Hinduism (essentially the same) are not easy
to understand from published accounts by rationalist scholars
untrained in theology. Both require use of the texts. However,
there are no doctrines peculiar to any one body of doctrine; any
real matter of faith can be supported from many different
sources.
An evolution in metaphysics is impossible; but one can
learn not to think for oneself (ie, as one likes). In mathematics
one does not have private opinions about the sum of two and
two; and so in this other universal science.
Further, on why worship must be symbolicfigurativesee
St Thomas Aquinas, Sum Theol III. 101.2. The use of symbols
pertains to the via affirmativa, and includes all names given to
God. They can only be dispensed with gradually in the via
negativa leading to direct vision without means. Those who try to
dispense with symbols before they have attained to the beatific
vision are premature iconoclasts.
Symbols are, strictly speaking, supports of contemplation. This
is why St Clement says, the parabolic style of scripture is of
the greatest antiquity, and why Dante says and therefore
doth the scripture condescend to your capacity, assigning foot
and hand to God, with other meaning (Paradiso IV, 43. f.). In
the animal life (empirical life guided by estimative knowledge)
we value things as they are in themselves; otherwise, for what
they are in intellect, taken out of their sense as Eckhart puts
it. Life is empirical to the extent that we are unable to refer our
actions to their principles. When we do so, however, then the
things are the symbols of the principles. A life with
communication based entirely on signs, and entirely lacking in
symbolism, is a purely animal life. A Comprehensor may to
all appearances do the same thing as other men, but for him sub
specie aetemitatis. Symbolism bridges the schism of sacred and
profane and that is why meaningless art is fetishims or idolatry.
On a somewhat lower plane, we cannot talk higher mathema
tics without using symbols. One cannot reduce everything to a
vocabulary of 500 words. To know without images is to be in
the state where contemplatio supercedes consideratio, for as
Aristotle says the soul never thinks without a mental pic
ture . . . even when one thinks speculatively, one must have
some mental picture of which to think (De anima III, 7.8).
This state of knowing without images is the last stage of yoga,
samadhi, which etymologically = synthesis.
Sincerely,
To E.R. GOODENOUGH
Date uncertain
Dear Professor Goodenough:
. . . I think that we have to be very careful not to forget that
the symbol of any immaterial thing is necessarily in itself
concrete, and not to fall into such blunders as Maines in his
introduction to Marcus Aurelius. We have all the same
problems in India, where the theology has been so hopelessly
confused by scholars who take terms such as vayu (wind, but
really Gale of the Spirit) literally and not as a referent. Philo
himself is often warning us against such errors (eg, Conf 133),
against which all the laws of allegory militate, while in India
we have equal ridicule for those who mistake the finger
for that at which it points.
I have of course, been able to make only a partial
concordance of Philos ideas for myself, but it is fairly thorough
for my purposes; I am using him largely in a study and
comparison of Greek with Sanskrit Akasa in the respective
texts. One would be hard put to it really to distinguish Philos
forms of thought from Indian.
Sincerely,
E. R. Goodenough, professor of the history of religion at Yale University, New
Haven, Connecticut, USA.
To GRAHAM CAREY
November 25, 1943
Dear Graham:
What the secular mind does is to assert that wc (symbolists)
are reading meaning into things that originally had none: our
assertion is that they arc reading out the meanings. The proof
of our contention lies in the perfection, consistency and universality
of the pattern in which these meanings arc united.
Always most cordially,
Graham Carey, identified on p 43.
This was a handwritten postcard.
To ROBERT ULICH
J uly 10, 1942
Dear Professor Ulich:
I am delighted to have your bookit is curious that I have
just been reading J aegers Paideia which states the aristocratic
cultural ideal. I suppose I am nearest to what you would call a
Symbolist (p 311) and certainly agree that this position is in no
way incompatible with radical scientific thinking, though it
surprises me that you call this attitude widespread in our
times since I should have supposed that to think in symbols
had gradually become the rarest accomplishment. I do not
think 1have ever felt the conflict of reason and belief, and in a
way I cannot understand what such a conflict could mean, since
it seems to me that all facts are projections of timeless forms on
a time-space surface. So too . . . miracles . . . arc things that
can be done even today by those who know how, and therefore
present no intrinsic problem; on the other hand, the question
whether such and such a miracle was actually performed on a
given occasion seems to me unimportant compared with the
transparent meanings of miracles (this takes us back to symbol
ism).
I f ever you make a second edition, I hope you will take
account of the Orient and the primacy of pure metaphysics as
emphasized by Guenon.
One further remark about symbolism. I was delighted
recently to find out that Aristotle points out that mimesis
naturally involves methexis.
I should have seen this for myself. It is so obvious when
pointed out. A pity Lcvy-Bruhl with his exaggerated notions
about the illogical character of mystic participation had not
realized it; he might have written less.
Symbolism presupposes real analogies on different levels of
reference. Hence also symbols and their references arc
inseparablethe symbols arc the langugc of revelation, not a
language to be constructed at will in the sense of let this be
understood to refer to this (that may be signification, but not
symbolism). The symbol is not so much o f X, as it is X in a
likenessie, in another nature. I would say that symbols are
technical language of the philosophia perennis. Symbols (eg,
light) are used in essentially the same way at all times and all
over the world: hence this is a language of common understanding.
Le symbolisme qui cherche is always individual and therefore of
little use for purposes of communication: le symbolisme qui sait is
another matter, and moreover of enormous weight because it is
only in terms of this symbolism that the forms of traditional art
acquire meaning for us. Shape and content of a symbol are
inseparable (cf p 95).
I am afraid my booklet is hard reading. I was very much
pleased by your appreciation therefore. I have recently com
pleted articles on Recollection, Indian and Platonic and The
Only Transmigrant (inseparable themes; for it is only a
timeless omniprcscncc that can make the idea of omniscience
intelligible).
With very kind regards,
Y ours sinccrely,
PS: p 283How often I have also said that freedom to starve
is not freedom! I find Kicrkcgaad almost repulsivealways
whining. So also Paul Claudel and Rainer M. Rilke mean
nothing to me!
PS: Y our book suggests many things. Obviously and above
all, education for what, toward what: I cannot think of any final
goal or summum bonum that does not include absolute freedom
and power to be as and when wc will, to know all that can be
known and also the unknowable. That is only conceivable by
an identification of our being not with this outer man so and so,
but with the immanent deity, the inner man (daimon). No
psychology, then, seems so much to elucidate our inner
conflict, actual limitation and desired liberty, as the Platonic
and Indian conccption of a Universal Self that is our real Self,
living side by side with the empirical Ego which is really a
process rather than an identity. Education must be twofold, on
the one hand to enable the outer man to do the tasks for which
he is naturally fitted, and second to enable us to recognize in the
inner man our real Self, and in the outer man no more than a
valuable tool adapted to contingent ends. In this sense I
understand gnothi seauton and its Oriental equivalents as the true
direction of higher education. I f wc also understand the
traditional symbolisms, all the activities of the outer man can be
made the support of this understanding.
PS: I doubt i f you are quite right in saying that Plato despised
manual labor; what he deprecates is mere manual labour,
anything that serves the needs of the body only, and not of the
body and the soul at the same time. Charmides 163B seems to
endorse Hesiods work is no reproach. Other refs:
Euthydemus 301D, Republic 401C, 406C, Protagoras 355B and his
whole conception of vocation, to eauton prattein being each
mans Way to perfect himself. Cf also original senses of sophia
and epistemeskill, again a connection of ideas well developed
in India where kausalya = skill, primarily technical, secondly
moral and intellectual.
Ulich, Heinrich Gottlob Robert, at the time of this letter was professor and
chairman of the department of education at Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA. As the book that occasioned this AK C letter is not
named in the letter, we can only conjecture that it may have been Dr Ulichs
Fundamentals o f Democratic Education, which was published in 1940.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt.
L evy-Bruhl, Lucien (d 1939), early social anthropologist and philosopher,
wrote widely on the behavior and thinking of primitive man, though
without ever having lived or worked among such people.
Recollection, Indian and Platonic and On the One and Only Transmig
rant, published as supplement 3 to the Journal of the American Oriental Society,
vol LXIV, no 2, 1944.
To GRAHAM CAREY
J uly 29, 1944
Dear Graham:

Intellige Deum et scite quod vis seems to me absolutely O. K.

I have been reading W. M. Urbans Language and Reality
(Allen and Unwin, 1939) with great pleasure and profit.
Answers on the color symbolism are not quite so easy. On
the whole, I agree with your remarks: however, I suggest that
Essentia is only apparently modified by matter, in the same way
that space is only apparently modified by its enclosure in say a
glass jar. We see this when the jar is broken: in the same way
with Essentia when the material conditions determining Esse are
dissolved. So I would say God created the Universe by
revealing whatever of Himself is susceptible of manifestation.
Over and above this remains all that is not susceptible of
manifestation. I do not like the expression passing Esse
through Posse.
Between these two lies the colored world of action. These are
the three gunas of Indian cosmology; cf Paradiso 29, 31-36.
These are the 3 worlds of traditionall under the Sun and
other than the Otherworld.
Blue, black and green are more or less the same traditionally;
the implication of emptiness is right, but this is also potential
ity, since emptiness demands fulfilment; the four castes and
four quarters are white, red, yellow and black. The higher
lights (as you imply) are representative of higher values.
Purple rightly associated with black; purple connected with
royalty (also mourning) as black is with death. Prism: so life
stains the white radiance of eternity.
I hardly think the light returns to God by the rotation of the
wheel, but rather when it is stopped, ie, when the circumference
is reduced to the centre; then the centrifugal ray by which the
circumference was so to say pushed out, returns on itself to its
source. As Heracleitus says, the way up and the way down are
the same, the wheel continues to turn until the circumference
is contracted to the motionless centre (rolling up of time and
space). I wonder i f you are not using Esse (existence) where you
mean Essentia (being), perhaps. Essentia apparently modified by
matter = Esse.
Dear Graham Carey:
Ive been expecting to hear from you about Newport, as I d
like to come i f its not too arduous.
both invisible
Best regards,
Graham Carey, Catholic author, Fairhaven, Vermont, USA.
To GRAHAM CAREY
December 8, 1943
I just discovered why a man carries his bride across the
threshold of the new home: briefly, the new home is
assimilated to Paradise, the husband acts as psychopomp, and there
is the prayer addressed to the joints of the door of the divine
house, Do not hurt her. One has to f l y through the Janua
Coeli and the nearest to that in formal symbolism is to be carried
throughyou can easily see why it is unlucky i f the husband
stumbles.
Kindest regards,
Graham Carey, as above.
To GRAHAM CAREY
J uly 20, 1944
Dear Graham:
I can subscribe to Revelationes multas, incarnatio unica which
seems to correspond to our doctrine of the Eternal Avatar.
The omne falsum . . . seems a little questionable: falsity, like
darkness, arises wherever the truth, spirit, light is absent. At
the same time, there could not be a world without its contraries
(true and false, good and evil, etc), and in the relative sense each
presupposes the other. God is not good in this relative sense,
but as transcending all values.
Very sincerely,
Graham Carey, as above.
To GRAHAM CAREY
J une 14, 1944
Dear Carey:
From the I ndian point of view (dark) blue and black are
equivalent. The three: blue, red and white correspond to the
tamasic, rajasic and sattvic qualities. Indian images can be
classified in these terms as ferocious, royal, and mild or
spiritual in aspect. Now while knowledge and love are the
characteristic qualities of Cherubim and Seraphim, their prim
ary functions are defensive . . . and looked at purely from an
Indian point of view one would think of the colors blue and red
as corresponding to this militant function. God himself would
be whiteor what is essentially golden, gold being the regular
symbol of light, life and immortality.
From within the Christian-Hebrew tradition one would
recall that Seraphs are fiery serpents and connect the red with
this as well as with their characteristic ardor.
I am just now writing the part of Early I conography of
Sagittarius which deals with Cherubs and Seraphs. They are
both militant and fierce types that keep the way of the Tree of
Lifethe nearest to God (under the Thrones) in knowledge
and love because they are his bodyguard, a sort of K ings
own regiment, an elite of the angels. I am not quite able to
explain the blue for the Christian-Hebrew sources. Possibly the
blue, as for the Virgin, considered in her aspect as Sophia.
Very sincerely,
PS: From my outlook, blue or black is appropriate to the
Virgin in view of her identity with the Earth (goddess), the
Mother*of which I was reminded the other day when seeing
the film The Song of Bernadette (which is very fine and you must
see). This is the accepted explanation of the Vierges noires (cf
Durand Lefevbre, Etude sur Iorigine des Vierges noires, Paris,
1937), and Benjamin Rowlands article on the Nativity in the
Grotto, Bulletin of the Fogg Museum of Art, VII, 1939, esp p 63.
* Given the nominalist and reductionist attitudes of mind that modem
education instills, almost willy-nilly, in those whom it forms, it may be
worth pointing out that this identification of which AK C writes in no way
excludes other symbolic identifications involving the Virginno more than
an actress is inhibited from appearing simultaneously in more than one film.
Preeminelty Theotokos, God-Bearer and Mother of God, she is also,
according to perspective and context: a young J ewish girl in whom virtue
was perfect, Co-Redemptrix, the divine Sophia, the shakti of Christ, imago
Dei and the primordial purity and beauty of the human soul antelapsus, janua
coeli. Spouse of the Holy Spirit, materia prima (cf Genesis i, 2), etc.
Grahm Carey, as above.
On Black Virgins, see: L inigme des Vierges noires, J acques Huynen, Editions
Robert Laffont, Paris, 1972; tude sur Iorigine des Vierges noires, Marie
Durand-L efebvre, Librairic Renouard, Paris, 1937; and Vierges romanes, A
Gueme, Zodiaque, Paris, 1973.
Unfortunately, The Early I conography of Sagittarius was still incomplete
at the time of Dr Coomaraswamys death and has not been published. I t may
be noted, however, that the arrow gives the sense of the figure of Sagittarius,
which is that of fully unified man: animal, human and divine, the arrow
indicating the latterChosen Arrow was a name given to Christ in early
Christianity.
To CARL SCHUSTER
December 9, 1931
Dear Dr Schuster:
Both your papers interest me greatly. Y ou are doing
invaluable and necessary work in recognizing the universal
symbolic motifs scattered so abundantly through Chinese
peasant art. On chess in its cosmic aspect, cf references given
by Otto Rank in Art and Artist. But is not your game rather
race game than chess proper? For similar games in Ceylon, cf
Parker, Ancient Ceylon. Shoulder flames are, I am sure, to be
distinguished from polycephalic representations, inasmuch as
the flames do not imply other persons of the person
represented. On tejas, see Vogel, Het Sanskrit Woord tejas,
Med Kon Akad Wetenschapen, Afd Lettarkund, 1930; cf my
Early Indian I conography, I: I ndra in Eastern Art. Shoulder
flames are represented in various divine and royal effigies on
Kusan coins, see Boston Museum Catalog of Indian Coins, Greek
and I ndo-Scythian, eg, pi xxviii, 26. The shoulder flames of a
Buddha occur typically in connection with the double
miracle (a solar manifestation) in which there are manifested
streams of water from the feet and flames from the shoulders,
cf Weldschm'idt in O z N F, VI, p 4, etc, and Foucher, L Art
greco-bouddhique. For further data on shoulder flames I am
sending you our Museum Bulletin for August 1927, see pp 53,
54. But I really dont think the problem is closely related to
your present enquiry; and it is just as important to exclude what
is irrelevant to a specific problem as to include what is relevant.
On the Sunbird in Indian symbolism, it would be easy to
write a book. Hentze has made sound remarks on the Sunbird
in Chinese art; see my Note on the Asvamedha, Archiv
Oriental ni, VII, of which I send you a reprint, see p 316, note 1.
The eagle, phoenix, garuda, hamsa, or by whatever name we
use, is two headed in the same sense as any other J anus type. I
presume the Sunbird may also be represented as the bearer-
across (the sea) of other beings, ie, like Pegasus, as the
vehicle of salvation, and in this case perhaps any additional
heads in general (and this includes the special case of the J anus
types) represent the persons of the Deity (we have representa
tions of the Christian Trinity of this type). On sunbirds and
other solar motifs, cf also Roes, Greek Geometric Art, its
Symbolism and Origin (Oxford).
I am sorry I cannot do more in a letter. I hope you will be
here again some day.
With very kind regards,
Y ours sincerely,
PS: Sunbirds hovering above the Tree of Life are of course
abundant in Assyrian art.
Carl Schuster, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Otto Rank. Art and Artist.
Early Indian I conography, I; I ndra, Eastern Art, I, Philadelphia, 1928.
L'Art greco-bouddhique, Foucher.
A Note on the Asvamedha', Archiv Orientalni, VII, Prague, 1936.
Ancient Ceylon, H. Parker, London, 1909.
To JOSEPH SHIPLEY
J uly 12, 1945
Dear Shipley:
Very many thanks for your fascinating volume; as you
know, I am deeply interested in word-meanings; and it
frequently happens that the meaning I need to use is obsolete
or rare rather than the current sense.
I feel most of the pieces are too short. A good piece might
have been done, s v, wit, on the distinction between gnoscere
from vitere, knowledge from wisdom, with other parallels. S v
element: from far back, both in Greece and India, the elements
are five, the quinta essentia being ether (this is a subject I have
done considerable research on); the four are only the'material
elements, the latter corresponds to soul. S v fairy, fata, is surely
plural, fates. S v angel, it would have been useful to point out
that Satan is still an angel, and our use of angelic to mean
sweet and good is rather insufficiently based. Some of the
unfallen angels are pretty fierce. Also I would have mentioned
that angels correspond to the gods (other than God) of pagan
mythologies. (Philo equates angel with Greek here and
daimon.) S v idiot, virtually one who thinks for himself. S v
nest, the Skr is nida; there is no niddprobably the second d is a
misprint for a.
Also fakir (lit, poor, designation of Islamic ascetics), no
connection with faker (as you say). Y ou have fakvir; it is,
however, wrong to add v after the g. . . .
Very sincerely,
J oseph Shipley, Dictionary of Word Origins, New Y ork, 1945. A copy was
inscribed to AK C, who knows the ways of words.
To PROFESSOR ALFRED O. MENDEL
Date uncertain
Dear Dr Mendel:
Right and left, of course, play an important part in all
traditional philosophies. For right and left as male and female
perhaps the most convenient references are Satapatha Brahmana
X .5.2.8-12 (see in SBE XLIII, p 371) and Maitri Upanishad
VII. 11 (see Hume, Thirteen Principle Upanishads, Oxford, 1934,
p 457). These two, of course, correspond to Sun and Moon,
and also to Manas and Vac.
Y ou might also, for the past as maternal and the future as
paternal, look at Sankhayana Aranyaka VII. 15 (and other triads
listed in same context) in the version of A. B. Keith, London,
1908, p 47.
With slight modification of your own words, I would
agreemother: past, self (ego, psyche); father: future, Self,
spirit, and Common Man (not fellow man, but the
Man in all men and women, which was the original meaning
of this expression, now perverted to refer to the man in the
street.
It is hermeneutically (not etymologically) interesting that
left has the ambigious sense of (1) opposite to right and (2)
meaning left behind; similarly, right, (1) not left in position
and (2) upright. Hence I would not agree to equating
tradition' with the past; properly speaking, tradition
represents what is timeless, stable, correct (con + right), while
the feminine is the changeable factor; as, indeed, we see in the
use of right and left in their political senses.* Tradition is no
more past than future; it represents the philosophia perennis, not
to be confused with fashions and habits which were new in their
day, but arc now passe.
Sincerely,
*Here actually you get the above and below rather than right and left
relation.A K Cs note.
Alfred O. Mendel, identified on p 45.
To PROFESSOR ALFRED O. MENDEL
August 5, 1947
Dear Dr Mendel:
Circle, vertical, and horizontal: to answer at length would
come near to writing a book. Y ou will observe that the
essential parts of a circle are centre, radius, and circumference;
and that if the radius is large, radius = vertical, circumfcrcnce
= horizontal. In terms of light, the ccntre = lux, radius (ray) =
lumen, circumference = color, and what is outside the cir
cumference = outer darkness. In terms of textile symbolism,
radii = warp, circumfcrcncc = woof. I f there are many
concentric circlcs, each circumfcrencc represents a level of
reference or world, ie, locus of compossibles. Also, in any
world, centrc corresponds to sun, area to atmosphere, cir
cumference to earth. Further, vertical (radius, ray) will be
male to horizontal (circumference) female. The position of
the individual existing in time and space will always be at
which a radius meets the circumference; motion along the
circumference will be temporal, while centrifugal or centripetal
(down or up) motion will be atemporal; hence spiritual
progress from the point of view of the individual cx-istcnt in
time, being the resultent of both motions, horizontal and
vertical, will be spiral; the symbol of the double spiral
representing the whole process of descent and ascent from the
centre. A purely materialistic concept of progress, however,
will be represented only by motion along the circumference;
while on the other hand, centripetal motion considered by itself
will be sudden, having precisely the well-known instan-
taneity of illumination. This last you will see more easily
when you get my Time and Eternity (to be published, probably
by September, by Artibus Asiae, Villa Maria, Ascona, Switzer
land).
For some references: my Kha . . . in Harvard Journal of
Asiatic Studies, 1, p 45; my Rgveda 10.90.1, note 37, in J AOS
66 (I send you this); my Symplegades note 37 (I send you this
also); Rene Guenon, Le Symbolisme de la croix and La grande
triade; E. Underhill, Ruysboreck, 1915, p 167 (quoting The Seven
Cloisters, ch xix); St Augustine, De ordine 1.3; Rumi, Mathnawi
3, 3530; Parmenides in Aristotle On Xenophanes 977B and 978B;
St Bonaventura, Itin mentis 5; Dante, Paradiso (many references
to circle and centre, punto)-, Dionysius, De Div nom 5.6;
Meister Eckhart in Pfeiffer, p 503; Plotinus, Enneads 3.8.8.
I might find more, but this is all I have time for now.
I send with the two other papers also the Janua Coeli, but I
must ask you to return this, as I have only a few lending copies.
Very sincerely,
PS: Boethius, De consol 4.6: Ad id quod est quod gignitur, ad
aeternitatem tempus, ad punctum medium circulus, ita est fati series
mobilis ad providentiae stabilem simplicitatem.
Alfred O. Mendel, as above.
Kha and Other Words Denoting Zero in Connection with the Metaphy
sics of Space was actually published in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental
Studies VII, 1934, University of London.
'Rgveda X.90.1: atv atisthad dasangulam, Journal of the American Oriental
Society, LXVI , 1946, no 2.
Symplegades, in Studies and Essays in the History of Science and Learning
Offered in Homance to George Sarton on the Occasion of His sixtieth Birthday,
edited by M. F. Ashley Montagu, New Y ork, 1947.
Svayamatmna: Janua Coeli, in Zalmoxis, II, no 1, Paris, 1939.
Rene Guenon, see Appendix.
Meister Eckhart, edited by Franz Pfeiffer.
This letter was in answer to an appeal from Professor Mendel, who wrote
the following: Today I examined the first five books and articles among the
hundreds that were written about symbolism, but could not yet find any
explanation of the vertical and the horizontal stroke, and the circle. No doubt
you know where I have to lookwill you kindly give me a hint? Note that
AK C responded only a little over a month before his death.
To PROFESSOR ROBERT ULICH
August 14, 1946
Dear Professor Ulich:
I hope you will not think it excessive i f I add still another
comment. In your book, p 200, the importance that Froebel
attached to the ball interests me. This could be fantastic in
him, i f based only on personal fancies. Otherwise it could be
very significant. I f I had to choose any one symbol as the basis
on which to expound the traditional (perennial) philosophy,
it would be the sphere or circle (hoop) with its centre and radii;
I think no more would be necessary to support the whole
development. For example, God as the circle of which the
centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere: revolving
motion the best (freest) of the seven possible motions
represented by the arms of the three dimensional cross and their
intersection; rays as extensions (teino, tan), according to
which individuals (their termini on any circumference, where
A
color appears, according to the recepient oflight) participate
in the divine luminous nature; exemplarism, whatever is
contained at A being represented at B, C, etc, and conversely
whatever is at B or C being present eminently at A; significance
of ball games (1) contest for the possession of the Sun, (2) aim
to drive the ball (oneself, Sun as in R V 1.115.1) through the
goal posts, out of the field, the posts representing the
contraries or Symplegadcs. Cf Cusa, De vis Dei IX ad f tn . So
Froebcl might indeed have meant such by his emphasis on the
ball; whether he did, I do not know. We who have forgotten
the metaphysical significance of the traditional sports (in
which, as in the traditional arts, there was always a polar
balance of physical and metaphysical) certainly overlook
enormous ranges of educational possibility. I wonder also
whether Froebel realised that there is a point at which the
distinction of work from play elapses?
Very sincerely,
Ulich, Hcinrich Gottlob Robert, professor and chairman of the department of
education at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
To JOHN LAYARD
November 26, 1945
Dear J ohn Layard:
The basic idea is similar to Meistcr Eckharts he who sees
me sees my child ie, the real me is not the visible man, but
his child, ie, Christ brought to birth in the soul. So to, Rumi,
The body, like a mother, is big with the spirit-child,
Mathnawi i.35.11. The idea is formulated also as part of the
symbolism of archery; the drawn bow is pregnant with the
arrow-child; identify yourself with the arrow [and] let fly (muc,
the root in moksa), stFaight to the mark, which is God.
J ohn Layard, identified on p 42
This was a postcard, without salutation and unsigned.
To JOHN LAYARD
November 24, 1945
Dear J ohn Layard:
Very many thanks for your letter and the reprints, of which
the Incest Taboo and the Poltergeist articles particularly
interested me. Y our letter raises so many points that I wish,
indeed, we could meet; but it is some thirty years since I was in
England and I hardly expect ever to be there again; our plan is
to retire to the Himalayas some four years hence. Y ou ask
about people of my kind in England: I would suggest Marco
Pallis (13 Fulwood Park, Liverpool), author of Peaks and Lamas,
which you may have read. Rene Guenon is in Cairo; but I think
his last book, La Regne de la quantite, would interest you.
Regarding my own writings, I would like to trouble you to let
me know what I have sent you already and especially whether
you received Spiritual Paternity (Psychiatry, 1945). What of
mine is available in print can best be found at Luzac in London;
they publish my Why Exhibit Works of Art? and will be issuing a
companion volume almost immediately, Figures of Speech or
Figures of Thought?, and I think you might find both of these
useful, especially the latter. Y ou probably do know N. K.
,Chawicks Poetry and Prophecy, and also Paul Radin, Primitive
Man as Philosopher; the mention of these two books reminds me
to say that where I am a little inclined to differ from you is that I
very much doubt that the raison detre of taboos, etc, was
unknown to the conscious minds of the earliest cultures; it
much rather seems to me that these meanings have been
forgotten since, by degrees; this will apply also to archetypal
symbols generally. In other words, I do not believe in the
validity of the application of the notion of evolution to the ideas
of metaphysics.
I fully agree to your comments re Self (the Socratic daimon,
Logos; Heracleitus Common Reason, etc). However, the dis
tinction of Self from self, le soi from le moi, is not mine; it has
long been necessitated by the exact equivalence of such
expression as atamanotma (the Atman of the Atman), to such
as Philos a spirit guide, munificent, to lead us through lifes
mysteries (Menander, fr 549KF. G. Allisons translation).
The realisation that duo sunt in homine is almost universal and
our evcrday language bears innumerable traces of it, for
instance when we speak of forgetting oneself in explanation
of some error committed. So we have throughout literature the
contrasted notions of self-love (wrong) and Self-love
(good). I have lots of references to Self-love from Upanishads,
St Thomas, Ficino, but not under my hand at the moment.
However, see Brhadarnyaka Up 1.4.8, and II.4; Ficino in
Kristeller pp 279, 287; St Thomas, Sum Theol III I .26.4; Scott,
Hermetica 11.145 on the true Aristotelian.
On caste, I have just finished a lecture, and will send you a
copy when available. The best book is Hocarts Les Castes. For
externalisation of psychological functions in terms of the
structure of society, see Plato, Republic 441; the same castes
(=jati) are to be found in the city and in the soul of each of us.
About circles and straight lines: A J eremias, Der Antichrist in
Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1930, p 4: Der Abendlander denkt
linienhaft in die Feme, darum mechanish, areligeos,faustish . . . das
Morgenland und die Bibel denken nicht linienhaft, sondern seitraum-
lich, spiralish, kreislaufig. Das Welgeschen geht in Spiralen, die sich
bis in die Vollendung fortsetzen.
Very sincerely,
J ohn Layard, identified on p 42.
The Incest Taboo and the Virgin Archtype, Eranos-Jahtbuch, vol XII , 1945.
The Poltergeist articles arc not further identified.
Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, see Bibliography.
Rene Gueon, The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, translated by
Lord Northborne, see Bibliography.
Spiritual Paternity and the Puppet Complex, AK C, Paychiatry, VIII, 1945.
Why Exhibit Works of Art?, London, 1943.
Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought?, L ondon, 1946.
Nora K. Chadwick, Poetry and Prophecy
Paul Radin, Primitive Man as Philosopher, New Y ork, 1927.
Walter Scott, Hermetica, Oxford, 1924. The four volumes of this notable
work have been reissued by Shambala, Boston, 1986.
A. M. Hocart, Les Castes, Paris, 1938; English version, Caste, London, 1950.
To JOHN LAYARD
November 26, 1945
Dear Dr Layard:
I have taken the greatest pleasure in your Eranos paper.
Understanding, candor, and couragc arc all in it.
The basic idea is similar to Meister Eckharts He who sees
me sees my child, ie, the real me is not the visible man, but
his child, ie, Christ brought to birth in the soul. So too, Rumi,
The body, like the mother, is big with the spirit-child
(Mathnawi 13.511). The idea is formulated also as a part of the
symbolism of archery; the drawn bow is pregnant with the
arrow-child; identify yourself with the arrow, let fly, straight
to the mark, which is God.
Y ou doubtless know the Y ama-Y ami hymn of the Rg-Veda,
but possibly not the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana 1.53ff (see in
J A O S XVI , 1894, 131ff) where the wooing is brought to a
happy ending, the sun-child is born.
Our word concept is also noteworthy; the thing conceived is
quite literally the offspring of a coition of (Skr) manas and vac.
Apart from this fathering, Vac only babbles.
P 273: Moieties . . . Male and Female: involves the
distinction of gender from sex, which scholars so little
understand; the moieties are of different genders, but not
sexually differentiated. Gender has to do with function, sex
with characterisation, with specific physical organs. Moreover,
every man and woman is bisexual; and when it is said that in
heaven there are only masculine virgins, it means that
salvation is only for the virile, not for the effeminate; not that
women as such are excluded.
Y our I shtar corresponds to Vcdic Usas (Dawn); Sri
(Fortune, Regnum); Vac (for whom the Gods and Titans arc
ever fighting), all of whom arc notably free women who will
follow whatever hero really wins them.
Do you know the poem Mary and the Blind Clerk (for
which sec Coulton, Five Centuries of Religion, I, 509). How
painfully Coulton, from the moralistic point of view, mis
understands it; as i f one might not gladly surrender ones
physical vision for that sight (cf Rumis His [Gods] eye for
mine, what an exchange!).
A wife is Jaya bccausc one is born again (jayate) of her, so that
she becomes his second mother; this, primarily in the esoteric
sense of reincarnation (incidentally, this progenitive rein
carnation is the only orthodox doctrine of reincarnation taught
in the older books). I have little doubt the esoteric meaning was
well known; of Jaiminaya Brahmana I. 17 (in J A O S XI X E,
1898, p 116) on the two wombs, human and divine, from
which one is born of the flesh, or of the spirit. Cf also the
doctrine that a man is still unborn, so long as he has not
sacrificed. For the wife as jaya, see Aitareya Brahmana VII, 13
(Harvard Oriental Series, 25, p 300)Therefore a son, his
mother and his sister mounteth; this is the broad and auspicious
pathyou can imagine what Coulton and the missionaries
would make of that!
Finally, it is repeatedly emphasized that what is yes for the
Gods is no for man; things are done and said in the ritual
which it would not be proper to do in everyday life, and
vice-versa. In the sacrifice, mans way of doing things would be
inauspicious.
Very sincerely yours,
G. G. Coulton, Five Centuries of Religion, Cambridge, 1923.
To JOHN LAYARD
August 11, 1947
My dear Dr Layard:
I must say that your letter both surprised and saddened me,
in fact it brought tears to my eyes. Y ours is a personal instance
of the state of the whole modern world of impoverished reality.
I find my own way slowly, but always surely; surely,
because it has been charted, and all one has to do is follow up
the tracks of those who have reached the end of the road. By
the Way, I mean of course that of self-denial and of
Self-realisationdenial primarily in the ontological sense rather
than in the moral sense, which last can only be safely supported
when it has been realised that it cannot be said of the Ego that it
is, but only that i t become; which is the teaching not only of
all traditional philosophers, East and West, but also that of
modern psychologists, eg, Hadley and Sullivan.
The way of healing is one of integration; resolution of the
psychomachy; making peace with ones Self; su werden as du
bist. All this can be found in all the great religious contexts. In a
forthcoming article (containing references on being at war
with ones Self) I have argued that Satan is the Ego, Christ (or
however the immanent deity be called) the Hero, and the battle
within you, to be finished only when it has been decidcd (in
Platos words) which shall rule, the better or the worse; a
battle that St Paul had won when he could say I live, yet not I,
but Christ in me. The nature of the resultant peace is
wonderfully stated in Aitareya Aranyaka II.3.7, This self (Ego)
lends itself to that Self, and that Self to this self; they coalescc
(or, are wedded). With the one aspect (rupa, form) he is
united with yonder world, and with the other aspcct he is
united with this world.
I do not agree that there has been any mistake in your work; it
has healed others, and delayed at the same time the coming on
of your own crisis. Neither were you wrong to publish it.
Much in the Stone Men, Hare and Incest has positive value
for others; and you should realise that misunderstandings and
mis-interpretation are inevitable, and ignore them. It is only
your present condition that makes you turn against the most
solid ground you have been standing on.
But you caught the very sickness you were treating. Y ou did
not have the art of self-insulation, or detachment; you did not,
so to speak, shake the effluvium from your fingers after laying
on your hands. I f you dont do that, you may still cure the
victim, but at the price of taking on his burden, which is neither
necessary nor is it right, since it is for you to remain intact in
order that you may cure others. Only the well can cure the sick,
and it is utterly true that charity begins at home; you cannot
love others- without first loving your Self, which is not only
yours, but that of all beings.
Now cut your losses. Repentence and remorse are two
different things. Repentence (metanoia), is literally and
properly a change of mind, as i f from sickness to health. The
past is no more relevant. Y ou have been a martyr to
psychology. But there is no reward for such a martyrdom;
forget it. Learn the traditional psychology and Der Weg sum Selbst
(this last is an allusion not merely to the Vedanta, but to
Zimmers work, published by the Rascher-Verlag in Zurich,
and that I think you ought to read). There is nothing better
than Vedanta, but I know of no Sri Ramana Maharsi living in
Europe. I do not trust your young English Vedantist, nor any
of the missionary Swamis; though there may be exceptions,
most of them are far from solid. I would not hastily let any one
of them have a chance to become for you another false guide.
Not even Vivckananda, were he still alive. Were Ramakrishna
himself available, that would be another matter.
But there are other ways, in some respects for a European
easier. It was emphasized in India by J ahangir and by Dara
Shikuh that the Muslim Tasawwuf (Sufism) and the Hindu
Vedanta are the same. Y ou say the written word is of little
use to you and that you need some personal contact. And it is
true that everyone needs to find their Guru. At the same time it
is certainly vain to search for one; the right answers will come
when we are ready and competent to ask the right questions,
and not before; and so with the Guru. There is a necessary
intellectual preparation. That is why, in spite of your
rejection of the written word, I feel you may perhaps not have
found the written words you need, and why I suggest that you
lay aside the sources you arc most familiar with and plunge into
a study of the traditional sourcesGreek, Islamic, and Indian
and Chinese. Try to build up your physical strength, and at the
same time to undertake to spend at least two years in making
yourself familiar with Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Hermes,
Dionysius, Eckhart, Boehme, the Brahmanas, Upanishads and
the Gita, and the Sufis, especially Shams-i-Tabriz, J alal udDin
Rumi, Ibn al-Arabi, Attar (for the latter begin with Fitzgeralds
version of the Bird Parliament, a work of infinitely more
importance and greater beauty than his Omar Khayyam).
Overcome the idea that you, J ohn Layard, are the doer and
lay the burden on the One who bears it easily. For in the words
of Apollonious of Tyana (whose Vita by Philostratus you
should read by all means) in his Ep 58 to Valerius (striken by
the loss of his son, a loss by death, but quite analagous to your
own loss that I asked you to cut), whom he exhorts in part as
follows:
Why, then, has error passed unrefuted on such a scale? The
reason is that some opine that what they suffer they
themselves have brought about, not understanding that one
who is bom of parents was no more generated by his
parents than is what grows on earth a growth of earth, or that
the passion of phenomenal beings is not that of each, but that
of One in everyeach. And this One cannot be rightly spoken
of except we name it the First Essence. For this alone is both
the agent and the patient making Itself all things unto all and
throughout allGod Eternal, the idiosyncrasy of whose
Essence is wronged when it is detracted from by names and
masks. But that is the lesser evil; the greater is that anyone
should wail when God is born out of the man [this refers to
the sons death when he gave up the (holy) Ghost, and the
Spirit returned to God who gave it] by what is only a change
of place and not of nature. The truth is that you ought not to
lament a death as it affects yourself, but honor and revere it.
And the best and fitting honor is to remit to God that which
was born here, yourself continuing to rule as before over the
human beings entrusted to your care.
Thus Apollonius offers to Valerius the consolation of
Philosophy (of Boethius), or rather, metaphysics. Whatever
can be lost was never really yours. One must consider on what
basis things (people, ideas, causes, all that one can be
attached to or wish to serve) arc really dear to us; of
Brhadaranyaka Up 1.4.8. (Of one who speaks of anything but
the Self as dear, one should say He will lose what he holds
dear. ); and ibid 2.4 and 4.5 (not for the sake of others are
others dear, but for the sake of the Self.); and Plato, Lysis
219-229 (the one First dear, for the sake of which all other
things can be said to be dear .); viz, their and our Self. I think
you have been too much attached to the idea of servicc to be
rendered to others, over-looking that the very notion of self
and others is a part of the great delusion. Nothing is more
dangerous than altruism, for it is only the correlative of
egoism. Y ou can only love thy neighbour as thyself when
you have realised that what he is, you are, not what he calls
himself, not what thou callcst I or myself , but That
art thou which underlies the names and masks of neighbour
and sel f.
Y ou may have outgrown the temporary form of European
civilization that has wounded you, and in which you recognize
your own destruction; and of which Picassos Guernica is a
realistic picture. Moreover, it has done with you. I think you
are no longer of it; not a Utopist, who can believe in salvation
by plans alone, without a change of heart. I said above that
there were more ways than those you have already followed,
and you have also emphasized that you need personal help. I
send you the following names in Europe. . . .
All this in order that you may in the end be able to return to
your own work to heautou prattein kata phusinbut other
wise minded than now, ie, may return to the cave to play
your part in the world without letting it involve you.
Please let me hear from you again soon. 1do not think you
should try to come to the USA. I have not reached the end of
the road myself, and am only your fellow-traveller, though
possibly better equipped with road-maps. I hope that what I
have said may be of some assistance; do not hesitate to write
further i f there is anything you think I can do more.
With kindest regards and sympathy,
J ohn Layard, cultural anthropologist and J ungian analyst, as above; author of
The Stone Men of Malakula, London, 1942; The Incest Tabbo and the Virgin
Archetype, Eranos Jahrhuch, XII , 1945; The Lady of the Hare: a Study in the
Healing Power of Dreams, Psychiatry, VIII, 1945; etc.
C f A K Cs study, On the Indian and Traditional Psychology, or Rather
Pneumatology, in Coomaraswamy: Selected Papers, vol II, Metaphysics; edited
by Roger Lipsey, Bollingen Scries L XXXI X, Princeton, 1977.
Heinrich Zimmer, Der Wcg sum Selbst, Zurich, (date?).
Salaman and Absal and The Bird Parliament, as translated by Edward
Fitzgerald, various editions.
Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius o f Tyana, translated by F. C. Conybeare,
Loeb Classical Library, Combridge, Massachusetts, USA, and London,
England.
The names of those to whom Dr Coomaraswamy referred Dr Layard have
been withheld at their request.
To FATHER H. C. E. ZACHARIAS
August 12, 1935
Dear Father Zacharias:
Very many thanks for your kind letter and reminiscence. I
am entitled to assume that you depreciate the constant use of
emanation in the Dominican Fathers version of Thomas
Aquinas Summa Theologica.
I must also premise that wc have, as it were by hypothesis,
two different preoccupations (1 do not, of course, mean whole
preoccupation): you to establish not only the truth, but at the
same time the exclusive truth of the Christian tradition, and I
(who i f required to profess, am a Hindu rather than a Christian,
although I can in fact accept and defend every Catholic doctrine
except this one of exclusive truth) to demonstrate the truth of
both traditions, to expound what is for me the faith, not a faith.
Is this exclusive truth, I wonder, really a matter of faith? As
to that, I am not informed. In any case, I think the Catholic
student of Hindu doctrine should ask himself whether, i f it
could be proved (such things cannot, of course, be proved in
the ordinary sense of the word) that Hindu tradition is also a
divine revelation, and therefore also infallible, he would feel that
his own faith was shaken or destroyed; an affirmative answer
would surely by shocking.
I am aware that the problem involved is that of pantheism. It
would take too long to write fully on this subject, which I hope
to do elsewhere; I will only say that we repudiate what from
our point of view is strictly nothing but the accusation of
pantheism levelled at Hindu doctrine, and as an accusation
comparable to the Islamic denunciation of Christianity as
polytheistic, a position which might seem to be supported by
such words as those of Sum Theol I q 31, a 2: We do not say the
only God, for deity is common to several. Cf also note 42 in
my New Approach to the Vedas, and Pulby, Note sur le
pantheismc in Le Voile dlsis, no. 186
With these premises, I will say that it is true that srj implies a
pouring out or perhaps osmosis. After creatures have been
thus poured out (srj) the deity in numerous Br passages is spoken
of as emptied out like a leathern water bag. Y et he survives.
Alternatively, he is cut to pieces or thought into many
parts (R V) one becoming many in this way, which may be
represented either as a voluntary or as an imposed passion, just
as the Crucifixion is both of these at the same time. In any case,
the deity has to be put together again, which is done
symbolically in the ritual; which in ultimate significance I
should be understood to mean . . . a reduction of the arms of the
cross to their point of intersection. The notion of a rcintegra-
tion (samskr) to be accomplished ritually could be said to have
a pantheistic look.
But: you must be fully aware how dangerous it is to take into
consideration one part of a doctrine, excluding the whole
context. It is repeatedly affirmed (RV and AV) that only a
fourth part of him bccomes (abhavat) here, three fourths
remain within (nihita guha = ab intra). Distinctions are
repeatedly drawn between what of him is finite and explicit,
and what infinie and untold (parimita, nirukta, and their
opposites); eg, rites with spoken words having to do with the
finite, ritual without words and orationes secretae (when manasa
stuvante) with the infinite. There are also the explicit statements
(AV and Ups) that when plenum is taken from plenum,
plenum remains.
Now, as to material cause in Christian formulation. St
Thomas speaks of nature as remote from God but yet
retaining a certain likeness. Likeness to what? Surely to natura
naturans, Creatrix, Deus, the wisdom that in Proverbs was
with God in all his work. I f nature were absolutely remote from
God, that would limit his infinity. To put the matter in another
way, take the doctrine of the two births of Christ, temporal and
eternal (Vedic and Indian parallels are plenty). There must be in
some sense a mother in both cases, since the birth is always a
vital operation. In the case of the eternal birth (that of whom
we should employ the expression Eternal Avatar as distinct
from other avatarana), is not the mother the divine nature,
not distinguished from that divine essence, these being one in
Him? In this sense, it seems to me that Christian doctrine
assumed in God a material cause in principe, which only
becomes a material cause remote from Him in fact; in other
words, secundum rationem intelligendi sive dicendi, when the
creation takes place and the divine manner of knowing is
replaced for all beings in multiplicity by the subject and object
or dual manner of knowing, which determines inevitably the
kind of language in which eternal truths are worded. Is not this
latter manner of knowing on our part really the ocassion of the
crucifixion in its eternal aspect? Truely, we know not what we
do, and need to be forgiven! It does not alter the matter i f we
say ex nihilo f i t , for what is nihil but potentiality as distinguished
from act? I f then he is emptied out, or as Eckhart puts it,
gives the whole of what he can afford, what does this mean
except the same as to say that he is wholly in act? By infallible
necessity he gives what of himself can be given, viz, the Son,
the Light; what he cannot give being the God-head, the divine
darkness, his inifinity.
Hence i f srj be strictly emanate (and it seems to me
ex-press is only a more active word for what is in any case as
it were a fontality), it represents at the worst an imperfect choice
of words, as in the Dominican Fathers Summa Theologica. But
taking into consideration the explicit character of Vcdic
Exemplarism (thou art the omniform light, joytir visvarupam;
integral multiplicity, visvam ekam; omniform likeness of a
thousand, sahasrasya pratimam visvarupam, etc) 1should say that
srsti is the same as fontal raying (Dionysius), the act of being,
complete in itself, although to our temporal spatial understand
ing appearing to go outward from itself. Cf He proccedeth
foremost while yet remaining in his ground (anu agram carati
kseti budlunah, RV III, 55.6).
Tam sending you a couple of recent papers, one on Scholastic
Aesthetic which I am sure you will be interested in. I would
send some others on Vcdic Exemplarism, Vcdic monotheism,
etc, later as they appear, i f you would care to receive them.
Meanwhile, with cordial greetings,
Very sincerely,
PS: It seems to me that there is some danger of our forgetting
that the current meaning of express, hardly more than of to
say omits a good part of the original force, to press our
Re srj, cf also Bhagavad Gita: nakartvam ne karmani srjati.
H. C. E. Zacharias, PhD, Fribourg, Switzerland, was a layman, which was
unclear at the time AK C wrote this letter.
Summa Theologica of St Thomas Aquinas, translated literally by the Fathers
of the English Dominican Province, Burnes, Oates and Washbourne, Ltd;
see Bibliography.
Pierre Pulby, Note sur le pantheisme', Le Voile dlsis, Paris, 1935; this journal
later carried the name Etudes Traditionnelles.
A New Approach to the Veda, an Essay in Translation and Exegesis, London,
1933.
Vedic Exemplarism, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, I, 1936.
Vedic Monotheis, Dr S. Krishnaswamy Aiyangar Commemoration Volume,
Madras, 1936.
Both of the last two references are reproduced in Coomaraswamy: Selected
Papers, Vol II, Metaphysics-, see Bibliography.
To H. C. E. ZACHARIAS
August 18, 1935
Dear Father Zacharias:
The following continues my previous letter. It would not, you
see, occur to us to have to defend the Hindu doctrine against an
assumption of pantheism, any more than it would naturally
occur to a Christian to have to defend Christianity against a
charge of polytheism. Nevertheless, the defence can be made in
cither case. In addition to the previously cited passages I come
across the following, which throw light on what was under
stood to be meant by srj. In Bhagavad Gita, V. 14, nakartatvam
tie karmani srjati. More cogent, Mundaka Up, 1.7, yatha urnanabhi
srjate ghrnate. . .tatha aksarat sambhavati iha visvam, where
aksarat, from him that does not flow, from the non
proceeding leaves no meaning possible for srjate ghrnate but
that of seems to withdraw, (ghrnate is of coursc literally
dessicates, one might say that as fontal, the deity is here
envisaged as Parjanya, as inflowing or indrawing, as Susna).
There is again Bhaskaras exposition of mathematical infinity as
comparable to that of deity in that it is neither increased nor
diminished by whatever is added to or taken from it,
impassissima verba: just as in the Unmoved Infinite (anante
cyute) there is no modification (vikarah) when hosts of beings
are emanated or withdrawn (syal laya-srsti-kale nante cyute
bhutaganesu yadvat). After all, what we want to get at is what
Hindus understand by srj, and here it is as always in such cases
largely a matter of crede ut intelligas followed by intellige ut
credas. Philology is not enough, the word must live in you. As
an outsider, you naturally claim a right of free examination,
as do Protestants with regard to the teachings of the Church,
yet however learned they may be, they may have missed the
essential. Y ou have a right to free examination, or at any rate
assume the right; so I do not ask you to agree with me. But I do
ask you to ask youself faithfully the preliminary question,
whether you would be disappointed if you became convinced
that pantheism is not to be found in Hinduism. I f the answer
were yes, could you still claim to be able to make a perfectly
unbiased judgement?
I might add that a very usual Christian criticism of Hinduism
is based on the pure illusion interpretation of the Maya
doctrine. In this case, if there is no real world, it cannot at the
same time be argued that an origin of this non-existant world
from its source implies a materiality in that source. I should
not, however, myself resort to this counter-argument, as I
understand the true and original meaning of maya to be natura
naturans, as the means whereby the essence is manifested.
Very sincerely,
H. C. E. Zacharias, as above.
Editors note: the following footnote, taken from A K Cs published writings,
explains the difference between natura naturata and natura naturans.
Although St Thomas is speaking here with special reference to the art of
medicine, in which means are employed, it is not these natural things that
effect the cure, but rather Nature herself, operating through them; just as it
is not the tools, but their operator that makes the work of art. Natural things
depend on the divine intellect, as do things made by art upon a human
intellect (Sum Theol I, q 17, 1C). The Nature, then, that all art imitates in
operation is not the objective world itself, our environment, natura naturata,
but natura naturans, Creatrix Universalis, Deus, that nature, to wit, which
created all others (St Augustine, De Trinitate XIV. 9).
To H. C. E. ZACHARIAS
October 1, 1935
Dear Dr Zacharias:
Very many thanks for your letter. I am very glad to sec that
we have grounds for agreement on many matters. The
tradition of a primordial revelation received by Adam (our
Manu ) especially constitutes a point of departure from which
can be discussed the relative positions of the now separately
maintained traditions. I do not agree that the Vcdic tradition
embodies a large amount of irrelevant matter, but rather that it
preserves more of the primordial doctrine than is to be found
elsewhere, though I would agree that the whole of the
primordial doctrine underlies and is implicit in every branch.
So far from finding any inconsistencies in the Vedic tradition, it
is precisely its extraordinary consistency that is the source of its
convincing charm (I use this expression bearing in mind that
Scholastic and I ndian aesthetic consider beauty as related rather
to cognition than feeling).
Now, as to material cause: there cannot have such a
confusion of the subtle (suksma) with the immaterial as you
suggest. For the expression suksma and sthula refer only to sarira;
while the deity is outwardly sariravat (incarnate), he is inwardly
asarira, discarnate. A confusion of suksma with asarlra would be
inconccivablc. As to the deity being all act, yes if by deity we
mean strictly speaking God. But if we consider the more
penetrating theology in which a distinction is drawn between
God and Godhead, notwithstanding that both conjointly
form a Supreme I dentity (Skr, tad ekam, satasat, etc), then it is to
be remembered that He is both eternal work and eternal rest.
That He does not proceed from potentiality to act (as we do) is
true, because His act of being is not in time; nevertheless as
Godhead He is all potentiality and as God all act. It is in this
sense that I spoke of the Material because being represented
in Him in principe, the Godhead representing in fact that nihil
out of which the world was made, that divine darkness that is
interpenetrated by the creative light of the Supernal Sun. Vedic
tradition does not, I think, employ any category exactly
corresponding to the expression spirit and matter, but rather
those of body, soul and spirit (rupa, nama, atman). Mat
ter, in other words, is a phenomenon, rather than a thing.
Nothing is more constant in Vedic tradition than the insistence
on this, that in so far as He reveals himself phenomenally (in
phenomenal symbols, in the theophany, by the traces of his
footprints, etc), all of these forms are imposed by the
worshipper, and are not intrinsic or specific to himself, who
lends Himself nevertheless to every imagery in which He is
imagined. In other words, the material cause is not in the
same sense as the other causes, a real cause, but simply the
possibility of manifesting form. Thus I have never said, nor has
Indian tradition taught that there exists in Him a material cause
in any concrete sense, but merely that there lies in Him all
possibility; we say that in Him all is act just because apart from
time He realises all this possibility, whereas we develop only
some of these potentialities at any one time and in the course of
a process in which effect seems to succeed cause. The above
remarks apply also to what you say about passivity in Him;
insofar as He is self-intent, that self which He regards must
be called in relation to that self which regards. The Godhead is
passive in relation to God, though both are a Supreme Identity,
viz, the identity of what Thomas calls a conjoint principle. I f
there were not both an active and a passive relation conceivable
within this identity of conjoint principles, it would be
impossible to speak as Thomas does, of the act of fecundation
latent in eternity as being a vital operation. In other words,
the divine nature is the eternal Mother of the manifested Son,
just as Mary is the temporal mother. Being Father-Mother
(essence-nature), either designation is that of the First Principle.
It is very interesting that the doctrine of the two Theotokoi
which is thus present in Christianity (and symbolized in the
Coronation of the Virgin) should be so definitely and clearly
developed in the Vedic tradition, and even exactly preserved in
the heterodox systems of Buddhism and J ainism. There could
hardly be a better illustration of the strict orthodoxy of both
traditions.*
As regards Thomas**, I may add that already among the
Scholastics, he is evidently of a rationalistic tendency. My own
Christianity would tend rather to be Augustinian (Christian
Platonism), [that of] Erigena [and] Eckhart. It seems to me that
it is significant that the full endorsement of Thomas took place
only in the latter part of the 19th century. When the Church at
that time realised the need of a return to the Middle Ages, was
it not perhaps the case that Thomas, represented, so to speak,
all that could be endured? I by no means intend to say that I
have not myself a tremendous admiration for and appreciation
of Thomas, but that while I find in him rather a commentary to
be used, a rational exposition, I find in Eckhart a far more
biting truth, irresistible in quite a different way. Not that they
teach different things, but that their emphasis is different, and
Eckhart comes nearer to the Indian and my own way of seeing
God.
With most kind regards,
Very sincerely,
H. C. E. Zacharias, as above.
The contradiction in these last two sentences may well have been
inadvertent. In any event, in his later years AK C definitely held that
Buddhism was an orthodox tradition and believed in the orthodoxy even of
J ainism. He and Marco Pallis were instrumental in getting Rene Guenon to
accept the orthodoxy of the former, which was bom from Hinduism in ways
analogous to the birth of Christianity from J udaism. J ainism would seem
more problematic at first glance. But one must consider the great antiquity
of J ainism: J ain legends, eg, make of their twenty-second (of twenty-four)
Tirthankara (one who overcomes) a contemporary of Krishna which implies
that J ainism was an already venerable tradition at the time of the war which
figures in the Mahabharata. By the canons of modem history, J ainism can be
traced back at least as far as the third century BC. This great antiquity, the
fact that J ains still form a viable community in India, and the broad
concordance of J ain doctrine with that of Hinduism and Buddhism all point
to the orthodoxy of J ainism.
** The Thomas in question is of course, St Thomas Aquinas (circa
1225-1275) major intellectual figure in western Christianity and the Angelic
Doctor of Roman Catholicism.
To MRS GRETCHEN FISKE WARREN
November 6, 1942
Dear Mrs Warren:
We must first of all be quite clear that the highest Mind,
which the Upanishads sometimes call Mind of the mind or
Lord of the mind, while it is the principle of thought, does
not think. Thus Aristotle in Met XII. 9.5 says . . . thinking
cannot be the supreme good. Therefore, if we mean the highest
Mind thinks itself (only), its thinking is the Thinking of
thinking, ie, principle of thinking. What we mean by thinking
is of contingent things, in terms of subject and object. Hence
neither the aesthetic (sensitive) nor the poetic (creative)mind are
the highest. We get a hierarchy in Met 1.1.17, where in
ascending order we have sensation, experience (emperiria), art
(techne) of the skilled workman, and architectonics, and the
speculative sciences (theoretikea) are superior to the productive
( p .ei e ti c hai) That is to say, feeling is inferior to productive
action, and action inferior to contemplation. Similarly, De
Anima III.5.4: Mind in creative act is superior to mind as
passive recipient of experience; the latter (sensitive) mind is
perishable and only thinks when it is acted upon from
without; only when separated (cf Maitri Upanishad VI .34,6:
kama-vivarjitam, from desire divided off), and as it is in itself
and impassible, is it immortal and eternal: ibid, 430 . . . , mind
twofold, (a) when it becomes everything and (b) when it makes
everything; of these two, (a) refers to the mind in act
separated, impassible and unmixed; what is meant by in act
is the identity of the mind with its object; ie, Met XI I .7.8, 1072
B 20ff, when it is thinking itself. Thus, once more, the
activity of making is inferior to the act of being, and both, of
course, [are superior] to the passivity of the sensitive mind; and
that itself becomes everything is perfectly illustrated by
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10: The Brahman knew itself
alone, thereby it becomes the All.*
Further, Met XI I .7.1072 B f, goes on to say that the aforesaid
impassible Mind in act (not meaning in activity) is a
contemplation (theoria), that it is life, life eternal, God Himself.
And this is the background ofjohn I, 3-4, and that which was
made was (had been) life in Him (this is not RV, but the
regular older understanding of the words, rendered by Eckhart,
for example, in his Commentary on J ohn, by Quod factum est in
ipso vita erat). (The editor says such is the reading in almost all
the older manuscripts. It is a far better rendering than that of
the Revised Version, ie, more intelligible.) Thus we have
clearly before us the two acts involved in any creation, viz
primus, the contemplative, and secundus, the productive.
I am not perfectly clear what you want to get at, but the
hierarchy starts from the aesthetic (sensitive) at the bottom,
through productive activity in the middle, to contemplative
possession of the form (without distinction of subject and
object) at the top. Cf the series, cogitatio, meditatio, contemplatio.
Always cordially,
PS: St Thomas Aquinas, When the mind attains to truth, it
docs not think, but perfectly contemplates the truth (Sum
Theol 1.34.1 ad 2).
*This citation may, at first glance, seem out of context; but the i tsel f in the
second clause refers to the Divine Mind. Notwithstanding possible
difficulties in this letter, we think AK Cs main line of argument is
sufficiently clear, and the letter is included because of the great importance of
the topic discussed.
Mrs Grctchcn Fiske Warren, Boston, Massachusetts
To RICHARD GREGG
October 12, 1946
Dear Richard:
Y our questions need a book for the answers! However; the
universe embraces an indefinite series of states of being (cf
Guenons Etats de Ietre; the expert yogi can visit and return
from any of these at will. However, they are all strictly
speaking states of becoming, ie, of experience and of
mutability in time; liberation is from time and all that time
implies. The Brahmaloka itself is a series of states. Early
Buddhism emphasizes that liberation is from both worlds, ie,
the world in which one is and the future world, whatever it
may be for anyone. Hence the Buddha is called teacher of
Gods and men; he is the teacher of Brahmas and shows them
the way to final escape. A Buddha is not a Brahma; he has
already occupied that high position in time past; now he is
brahma-bhuta, become Brahma, a very different matter. The
Ego, whether ours or that of any God, is a postulate, not an
essence; a pragmatic postulate, for no one can say of anything
mutable that it is. Body and soul alike are for the Buddhist (and
for St Augustine) equally mutable; St Augustine is thoroughly
Buddhist and Vedantic when he says Reason (ratio = logos) is
immortal, and I am defined as something both rational and
mortal at the same time. . . . I f I am Reason (tat tvam asi), then
that by which I am called mortal is not mine (De Ordine
11.50),virtually the common Buddhist formula, That is not
I, that is not myself, that is not mine. Liberation follows when
we can detach our consciousness of being from identification
with the notion of being this man or this God. It is only relati
vely better to be a God than a man; both are limited conditions.
Vedanta and Buddhism both allow of a karma-mukti\ libera
tion may take place here and now, or at death, or after death
from the position in some other state of being that corresponds
to the stage in the process of becoming what we are, that has
actually been reached. This life is determinative only in this
sense, that what we are when we are at the point of death, that
we still are immediately afterwards; as Boehme says, the soul
goes nowhere after death where it is not already. But in that
new condition further growth can be made.*
Twenty-one is a simple matter; the (Supernal) Sun is often
called the twenty-first from here and what is beyond him
the twenty-second just because seven worlds, each with three
levels (earth, air, sky, or ground, space, and roof) make
twenty-one. I point this out in RV X.90.1, note 37, and
elsewhere. Cosmologies vary in detail, but have many fun
damentals in common; eg, the seven rays of the sun, with
corresponding seven directions of motion; the notion of the
(sun)-door through which one breaks out of the cosmos = also
the passage of the Symplegades which are the pairs of
opposites of which, as Cusa says, the wall of the celestial
paradise is built: the narrow way and the straight gate passing
between them (as pointed out in my review of The Lady o f the
Hare in Psychiatry, VIII, 1945, and elsewhere).
As to karma: causality operates in any world, in any order of
time; but does not imply succession in the timeless, where there
is no sequence of cause and effect, beginning and end, essence
and existence, being and,knowledge.
Arhat is virtually synonymous with Buddha; both can be
used in place of each other. Of such liberated beings, the life is
hidden; only to others does it seem to be in time. I dont
think there are any fundamental differences between the
Mahayana and the Hinayana. In any case, reincarnation is
only a fagon deparler bound up with and inseparable from that of
the postulated Ego; it is a process, not the same individual
that reincarnates; and in fact, in this sense the reincarnation
or becoming from which liberation is desired is that which
goes on all the time, from moment to moment; becoming in a
future life is only a continuation of this present becoming; no
one who still is anyone can have escaped it.
The phrase psychic residues does not properly apply to
these continuations of persons elsewhere, but only to pseudo
personalities or wandering influences in process of disin
tegration, and which the spiritualistic medium temporarily
enlivens and communicates witha procedure abhorrent to all
orthodox traditions. Communication with the dead and the
Gods is possible, but only by our going to them, not their
coming to us (in general; some modification might be needed
here); in early Buddhism, competent contemplatives are
constantly represented as visiting some heaven, and even the
Brahmaloka (Empyrean).
I think this amounts to some kind of answer to most of the
questions. I daresay you saw some report of the Conference at
Kenyon College; I found it quite interesting; I expect my
speech (to which several papers, including the N Y Times gave
nearly a column) will get printed in due course; it was mainly a
destructive analysis of the educational and missionary efforts
of the English speaking peoples in other lands; it was rather
well received.
I am rather near finishing the paper (circa 70 pages of
typewriting) on Time and Eternity; it traces the doctrine briefly
enunciated by Boethius in the words nunc Jluens facit tempus,
nunc stans facit aeternitatem, in Indian, Greek, Islamic and
Christian contexts.
Wc arc both well and send our love. Greetings to all our
friends.
Y ours sincerely,
* The reader is referred to the remarks of Whitall Perry in His Foreword to
this collection, pp v-vii, and also to Frithjof Schuons Approaches du
phenomen religieux, pp 26, 27; and to the same autors Sur les traces de la religion
perenne, pp 97fF.
Richard Gregg, American friend of Gandhi, wrote on non-violence.
Rene Guenon, Les Etats multiples de I'etre, 1932 and numerous other editions;
see Bibliography. See also his L Erreur spirite for the traditional judgement
upon and explanation of spiritualistic phenomena.
Rigveda X .90.1: aty atisthad dasangulam, Journal of the American Oriental
Society, LXV1, 1946.
For What Heritage and to Whom Are the English-Speaking Peoples
Responsible?, in The Heritage of the English-Speaking Peoples and Their
Responsibility, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, USA 1947.
Time and Eternity appeared as a book, published by Artibus Asiae, Ascona,
Switzerland, 1947; see Bibliography.
To PROFESSOR KURT VON FRITZ
October 29, 1945
Dear Professor von Fritz:
I read your article on Greek prayer with interest. May I offer
a few suggestions? Mostly in the nature of parallels.
Page 8, the whole passage from Y et . . . god 7, with
note 7 corresponding almost exactly to what one has in India
where there is 1) no early authority for rebirth in the
commonly understood sense of reincarnation on earth (cf my
Recollection, Indian and Platonic and The One and Only
Transmigrant), and 2) the concept of a participation in the
eternity of life by knowledge of it which is precisely what we
find in the Brahmanas and Upanishads. I would add that the
dual concept of Hades, the otherworld, land of the dead,
land of no return, as either a heaven or hell, according to
the quality of those who go there, is very widespread; one
might say that the concept of a distinct place is exoteric, that of
distinct conditions, the esoteric doctrine. On the question of
mystic deification, is not this rather implied by the equation
of Zeus with Ether (Aeschylus, Euripides) and such passages as
Eur, fr 971; and Chrys, fr 836?
Note 15: so in India. I think the notion of a miracle as
something against nature is something comparatively modern.
The traditional notion is of the exercise of latent powers of
which the control can be gained by anyone who follows the
necessary procedure. Hence a Hindu would naturally wonder
why a Christian is so much embarrassed by the Gospel
miracles.
Page 26: So the art or skill with which the Vedic hymns are
constructed (often with comparison to other crafts, esp of
joinery) is regarded as pleasing to the gods.
Regarding the last complete sentence on this page: i f I were
describing the Vedic conception of sacrifice, I would say that
exoterically it implies the giving up of something to the deity,
which something in the ritual is really oneself represented by
the victim or special symbol; but esotcrically, not so much the
actual giving up of something as a reference of all activities
whatever to God, the whole of life being then ritualized and
made a symbolic sacrifice; with your words joyful activity
. . . most appropriate offering, compare them to the follow
ing in Chandogya Upanishad III, 17.3: When one laughs and
eats and practices sexual intercourse, that is a joining in the
Chant and the Recitative. It becomes unnecessary to oppose
profane and sacred. It may be regarded as one of the great
defects of developed Christianity to have emphasized their
oppositionacts are only profane in so far as they are treated as
meaningless, and not referred to their ideas. So for example,
we distinguish useful from fine arts and so find ourselves
opposed to the prehistoric and Platonic concept of arts that
provide for the needs of the soul and body simultaneously.
Very sincerely,
Professor K urt von Fritz, New Rochelle, New Y ork, USA. His article is not
further identified.
Both recollection, Indian and Platonic and On the One and Only
Transmigrant appeared as supplements to the Journal of the American Oriental
Society, LXIV, 1944, and were published also in Coomaraswamy: Selected
Papers; see Bibliography.
To PROFESSOR KURT VON FRITZ
November 7, 1945
Many thanks for your response. Regarding its second
paragraph, the sense of numerous presences is perhaps more
emphatic in Greece, but certainly not absent in India (eg,
thunder as the voice of the Gods). I think it would be true in
India to say that the notion of union is with the impersonal, and
that of association with the personal aspect of dietybut these
two aspects merge into one another, as being the two natures of
a single essence.
AKC
Postcard to the above.
To DR J. N. FARQUHAR
February 1, 1928
Dear Dr Farquhar:
I am of course in general agreement with your view
expressed on the origin of image worship in the last J R A S,
except as regards the statement that a monotheist cannot be an
idolator. On the purely symbolic value of images (ie,
non-fetishistic), there is an interesting passage in Divyavadana,
Chap LXXVI I , where Mara impersonates Buddha and Up-
agupta worships the form thus produced, explaining that he is
not worshipping Mara but the teacher who has departed just
as people venerating earthen images of gods do not revere the
clay, but the immortal ones represented by them.
My views were actually based not on the tradition, but on
the art itself and the literature. Y ou will find a great deal of
material bearing on the subject in the two papers of mine about
to appear: Origin of the Buddha I mage, Art Bulletin, vol IX,
pt iv, 1927; Y aksas, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Publications,
L XXX, no 6, Washington, D. C., 1928.
Also sec in Charpentier, J , Uber den Begriff und die
Etymologie von Puja, in Festgabe Hermann Jacobi, Bonn, 1926;
and in Louis de La Vallee-Poussin, . . . Indo-Europeens et
Indo-Iraniens: IInde jusque vers 300 av J - C , Paris, 1924,
pp 314ff.
Very sincerely,
PS: My two papers will be sent to the R. A. S. Library.
J . N. Farquhar, Manchester, England, was a well known writer on Indian art
and culture.
R. A. S. = Royal Asiatic Society: J . R. A. S. = Journal of this same Society.
For the two papers by AK C mentioned in the letter, see Bibliography.
To PROFESSOR B. FARRINGTON
October 8, 1945
Dear Professor Farrington:
Many thanks for writing in reply to my note. What I meant
was, that to explain physis in terms of techniques has been the
universal procedure. And in reply to the further objection, I
meant to suggest that what might have been described as
physical [in] pre-Socratic thought is really theological
thought, since the nature they were trying to explain was not
our natura naturata but natura naturans, creatrix universalis, Deus,
and that to do this is to imply that nature herself operates per
artem et ex voluntate, ie, that she is a Person.
For the rest, I find it very difficult to see uniqueness in any
local thought; only local colour. 1have often asserted that there
is nothing peculiar to Indian thought, and could support this
by innumerable parallels. In fact, I try never to expound any
doctrine from only a single source. I cannot, indeed, conceive
of any valid private axioms. I f by any chance Psychiatry is
available there, you might care to look at my article in VIII, 3
(the last part published, Sept 1945).
Very sincerely,
Professor B. Farrington, Department of Classics, University College,
Swansea, Wales.
This letter was in response to one from Prof. Farrington, part of which read
as follows: . . . Y our point, i f I have understood you, is that I am right in
my description of early Greek science, but wrong in thinking the attitude of
the early Greeks unique. In fact, you say, it is Hebrew, Sanskrit and
Scholastic as well as Ionian Greek. But is there not a misunderstanding here:
the early Greeks attempted to explain physis on the analogy of techni
ques. . . . the early Greeks had begun to distinguish a world of nature from
the world of man, to conceive of the world of nature as the realm of objective
law. . . . Spiritual Petcrnity and the Puppet-Complex, Psychiatry, VIII,
1945.
ANONYMOUS
Uncertain date
Sir;
It is stated that naturalists maintain that reliable
knowledge is publically verifiable. This position Mr Sheldon
very properly opposes; it is in fact, unintelligible. The proper
form of such a statement would be: reliable knowledge is
repeatedly verifiable. This is Aristotles proposition that
knowledge (episteme) is of that which is always or usually so,
never of exceptions (Met VI, 2.12 & 1, 813); and a particularly
interesting application can be made to the problem of the
historicity of an incarnation or descent (avatarana)\ for
example, the historicity of J esus will be automatically excluded
from the domain of reliable knowledge and intelligibility i f it is
not also assumed that there have been other such descents.
The supernaturalist maintains not only that the reality of the
Divine Being has been repeatedly verified, but that it can be
repeatedly verified, viz, by anyone who is willing to pursue the
Ways that have been charted by every great metaphysical
teacher; and that it is just as unscientific for one who has not
made the experiment to deny the validity of the experience as it
would be unscientific for anyone to deny that hydrogen and
oxygen can be combined to produce water, if he is unwilling to
make the experiment, employing the necessary method. The
layman who will not experiment, and will not believe the word
of those who have experimented, may say that he is not
interested in the subject, but he has no right to deny that the
thing can be done; the scientist is in precisely the same position
with respect to the vision of God.*
It is also stated that the naturalists horror supertiaturae is not a
capricious rejection of well-established beliefs like the belief in
ghosts. This is naive indeed. For ghosts, if anything, arc
phenomena, and as such a proper subjcct of scientific investiga
tion; only because of their elusiveness, ghosts pertain to the
realm of occultism. But it is precisely in occultism that the
supernaturalist is least of all interested (cf Rene Guenon,
L Erreur spirite, Paris, 1923 and 1930 [and 1952 and 1977]). The
metaphysician, indeed, is astounded that so many scientists
should have become spiritualists and should have attached so
much importance to the survival of those very personalities
which hethe metaphysician in this matter agreeing with the
materialistregards as nothing but becomings or processes
(behaviours), and not as real beings or in any possible way
immortal.
Finally it should be overlooked that supernatural no more
implies unnatural than supcrcsscntial means unessen
tial. The whole question depends, in part, upon what we
mean by nature; generally speaking, the materialist and the
supernaturalist mean two very different things, of which one is
not a thing at all. The modern naturalist limits himself to the
study of natura naturata, ie, phenomena; the interest of the
theologian is in natura naturans, creatrix universalis, Deus, not so
much in appearances as in that which appears. As for
miracles: the metaphysician will agree with the scientist that
the impossible can never happen. Orientals take it for
granted that the power to work wonders can be acquired if
the proper means arc pursued; but he does not attach to such
performances any spiritual significance**. For him, the possi
bility of working wonders (wonderful only because of their
rarity, and in the same way that mathematical genius is
wonderful) is inherent in the natural order of things; but the
modern scientist, if confronted with an irrefutable miracle
would have to abandon his faith in order!
I have never been able to see any meaning in the conflict of
science with religion; those who take part in the quarrel are
always mistaking each others positions, and beating the air.
Sincerely,
* Experiment commonly denotes trial and error; however, it also
implies experience, experienced and expert, and these three latter senses are
implied in this paragraph. To find ones way to salvation or enlightenment
by trial and error would be virtually an impossibility; practically, one
must have the benefit of those who are experienced and expert.
** I t would appear that Dr Coomaraswamy had in mind here primarily
theurgy. In monotheism, miracles definitely have spiritual significance. In
Christianity, eg, consider the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, or the
raising of Lazarus; in J udaism, consider the miracles of Moses; and in Islam,
the Night J ourney of the Prophet and the descent of the Quran, to mention
only a few of many miracles that serve as channels of grace, authentications
and doctrinal illustrations.
To GEORGE SARTON
November 3, 1944
My dear Sarton:
I am hoping that your tolerance may extend to an acceptance
of the enclosed continuation of my earlier article. Personally, I
cannot but think that to know precisely what ideas of an
evolution were held prior to the formulation of modern ideas of
mutation, and are by some still held side by side with these
modern ideas, pertains to the history of knowledge: and that if
the scientist and metaphysician could learn to think once more
in one anothers dialects, this would not only have a tremendous
human value, but would avoid a great deal of the wasted
motion that now goes on.
With kindest regards,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University.
Gradation and Evolution, II, Isis, XXXVI I I , 1947.
To GEORGE SARTON
J une 21, 1943
My dear Sarton:
Many thanks for your answers. I can agree with nearly
everything. The misfortune is that while science deals with
facts and not with values, there has been a tendency to think of
these measurable facts as the only realitieshcncc the necessity
expressed in your last sentence.
Where 1most radically agree is as to cogito ergo sum which 1
have long regarded as an expression of the bottom level of
European intelligence. Thought is something that wc may
direct, not what wc are. I do not credit Dcscartcs with a
distinction between the two egos implied (1) in cogito and the
other in sumi f one did credit him with that, then one could
acccpt the statement in the sense that the phenomenon or
manifestation (thinking) must imply an underlying reality. In
any case, the most essential ego (in sum) is the one that no
longer thinks, but perfectly contemplates the truth. Thinking
is a dialctica valuable tool, but only a tool.
I agree both that scientia sine amore estnon sapientia, sed nihil,
and similarly ars sine amore is not sophia, but mere techne. These
propositions arc implied in the Scholastic operates per intellectum et
in volunate.
Kindest regards,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University.
To GRORGE SARTON
March 11, 1942
Dear Dr Sarton:
I am sending you Atmayaja, parts of which may interest
you. I was told of your lccture this morning and apropos of the
reference to Plato, when you said that the scientists faith in
knowledge as a panacea was an inheritance from Plato. Is not
this overlooking that what our scientist means by knowledge
and what Plato meant by knowledge are two very different
things? Cf Alcibiades 1.130 E & F; Protagoras 357 E, 356 C;
Phaedrus T i l E.
Best regards,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University.
Atmayajna: Self-sacrifice, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, VI, 1942.
To GEORGE SARTON
Undated
PS: Similarly in India, eg: The world is guarded by
knowledge . But the word here (Aitareya Aranyaka 11.6) is
prajna = pronoia = providence = Brahma, not the empirical
knowledge which the scientist makes a panacea.
George Sarton, as above.
To GEORGE SARTON
October 29, 1942
Militon Mayer on the illiteracy of scientists in Common Sense
for November might interest you. It was somewhat the same
point, the illiteracy of the anthropologists, that I meant to bring
out in the Psychiatry article (current issue).
A postcard to George Sarton, as identified above.
To HENRI FRANKFORT
April 16, 1947
Dear Frankfort:
From time to time I have been looking at your Intellectual
Adventure . . . I dont much like the heading Emancipation of
Thought from Myth; it seems to me to imply a sort of
premature iconoclasm which most of us are not yet at all ready
for. An iconoclasm not yet extended to the very notion of self
as an entity is very incomplete. For the Sufis, to say I is
polytheism. Few are emancipated even from history.
P 367: arc you not overlooking that the Hebrew means I
becomc what I become, while I am that I am is a Greek
interpretation?
P 380: Hcraclcitus, fr 19: gnome, here = gnome in Euripides,
Helen 1015 (for which, as in all the material you are discussing,
there are remarkable Indian parallels).
P 382: Hcraclcitus never denied being. One must not over
look that in panta rei, panta is in the plural. Being is not one of
many, but inconnumerable. One must not confuse his Fire
with its measures (cf my Measures of Fire in O Instituto,
100, Coimbra, 1942; and Ritter and Prellcr, Hist Phil Gk, 40,
note a: Zeus, Dike, to Phon, Logos: varia nomina, res non
diversa . . . pyraeizoon, unde manat omnis motus, omnis vita, omnis
intellectus). Hcraclcitus never said that all being was but a
becoming (p 384); he would have said this only of existence,
not of being.
P 385: The thing that can be thought. . . .; here Parme
nides is speaking of noein, not of gnome as used by Hcraclcitus
and Euripides (who expressly distinguishes nous as mortal from
gnome as immortal). Gnome need not be of anything. With
Euripides, Helen 1014-6; cf BU IV.3.30 (in Hume, p 138 at t p).
Finally, the Pythagorean doctrine, identical with Vedanta, is
best of all, I think, enunciated in Apollonius Ep 58 (to
Valerius). As in. Buddhism, the reincarnation of the indi
vidual soul is a doctrine only for laymen and beginners.
Very sinccrely,
Henri Frankfort, Dorset, England.
Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man, see Bibliography.
Robert Ernest Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, 1931.
To J. E. LODGE
November 7, 1932
My dear Lodge:
Many thanks for your letter. We do not find Indian texts
saying that the world is maya, but that the world is
moha-kalila. In the same way I was trying to distinguish magic
as means from the work of magic as production. I was not
intending to bring in the identity of spectator and performer,
but meant to retain their rationalnot realdistinction.
But even so, does not (or did not) the spectator think of the
magician as making use of magic? And when the spectator does
call the trick magic, is not this always a conscious or
unconscious ellipse for work of magic?
Very sincerely,
PS: So I should not like to render maya as illusionit is by
maya that moha is produced. Moha is illusion, subject to
empirical observation.
J . E. Lodge, Curatory of the Freer Gallery, Smithsonian I nstitution,
Washington, D. C., USA.
To E. F. C. HULL
August 20, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
Y ours of August 12: in the first place, I agree in general with
the tendency of your remarks on translation. Secondly, for the
Buddhist material, I recommend that you get the help of Miss
I. B. Horner, Secretary of the Pali Text Society (30 Dawson
Place, London W2), with whom as a matter of fact I am already
collaborating in a book consisting of a selection of the Buddhas
logoi, newly translated; and in any case translations of all the
Buddhist material are available in the publications of the Pali
Text Society itself, though it would be better to have them
revised, so that I would rely on Dr Horner, who is a most
competent scholar in this field. Thirdly, I trust you will not
repeat Mischs barbarous spellings of Indian names but adhere
to the international rules (as to which, also, Dr Horner would
be able to aid you). Fourthly, I am now 69 and have more than
enough work in hand to last me another 25 years, if that were
available, and I have to refuse all sorts of invitations to
undertake anything else. Y eats version of the Upanishads is
negligible; he knew no Sanskrit and his assistant knew no
English of the kind required; I regard such undertakings as
impertinent. Humes Thirteen Principle Upanishads is by no
means consistently reliable, all scholars are agreed. In my
opinion the versions in W. R. Teapes Secret Lore of India are the
truest; but they are hardly as literal as you may require. Of the
Bhagavad Gita, there must be over 20 versions in English; the
best are, in one kind, Edwin Arnolds, and in another, that by
Bhagavan Das and Annie Besant. In all matters of procuring
books, Luzac (46 Great Russell Street, London W. C. 1) would
be your best source.
, I do think that 1am perhaps as competent as anyone you
could find to provide you with versions of texts from the
Upanishads. For the texts from the SBE volumes XXXI V (and
XXXVI I I ), I think you might take Thibauts existing versions
as they stand, not that they arc incapable of improvement
altogether, but he is a good scholar and the versions arc for the
most part excellent. This leaves me somewhat tempted to try
and do the pieces from B G and the Upanishads, I should not
want to do the Samkhya texts with which I am less familiar;
and the B G and the Upanishads arc daily reading for me. I f
you are not in too great a hurry I might agree to help to this
extent.
Re the spellings: it would be desirable for your printer to be
equipped with the diacritical marks and, as I said, to adhere to
the forms on which there is international agreement (these can
be seen, for example, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,
74 Grosvnor St, London). Such spellings as Vinaja (side by side
with Nikaya) are absurd; they should be Vinaya and Nikaya.
Njaja should be Nyaya; Tschandooja should be Chadogya\
Brihadaranjaka should be Brhadaratiyaka\ and so on.*
Even to do what I offer, I should be glad to have the original
book. 1presume the publisher would be willing to make some
payment for the work, and that I should ultimately receive a
copy of the volume as translated.
Very sinccrcly,
* We have not strictly followed Dr Coomaraswamys well founded
preferences in this matter of diacriticals in Sanskrit, Pali and Greek words that
appear in the pages of this volume because of the constraints of time, talent
and type faces.
Mr R. F. C. Hull, Thaxted, Essex, England, was translating Georg Mischs
Der Weg in die Philosophic (B. G. Teubner, 1926), which consisted of a great
many quotatios from the Hindu and Buddhists Scriptures, and had written
to obtain help in clarifying several passages.
The Liuitig Thoughts of Gautama the Buddha, presented by Ananda K
Coomaraswamy and I. B. Horner, London, 1984; see bibliography.
To R. F. C. HULL
August 30, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
I have yours of the 24th. 1meant to say that I would do the
few picccs from the Bhagavad Gita also, so please send list of
these. It is still my intention to do the Upanishad picccs before
Christmas, but I have no free time before mid-October.
Teape. is obtainable from Blackwell, Oxford, and also, I
think, from Heffcr, Cambridge, but try Blackwell first (7/6
with the Supplement). Teape is unquestionably literary. I dont
agree that Y eats is so consistently.
As regards the two Rgveda hymns: I have a learned friend
here who is making the RV his life work, and is thoroughly
competent both from the linguistic and the literary point of
view. I f you will write to him directly (Dr Murray Fowler, c/o
Prof B. Rowland, 154 Brattle St, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USA) merely explaining that they are for a translation of
Mischs book and that you are writing at my suggestion, I am
sure he could do them for you within a month.
Incidentally, of course, Dcusscns Sechszig Upanishads would
be available in any good library, and so would Teape be, eg, at
the Royal Asiatic Society (where you could mention my name
by way of introduction, though it is hardly needed). There,
also, you could use all the Pali Text Society volumes (their own
stock was destroyed by a bomb).
The Nidanakathd passage Miss Horner could do, or you can
take it from Rhys Davids Buddhist Stories, London, Trubner,
1880.
In case you cannot use all the proper diacritics, the two
important points would be to spell correctly and to distinguish
the short and long vowels (a and a, etc). In this case it would be
permissible to use sh for s, but it would still be desirable to
distinguish s, and I think most printers could do this.
Very sincerely,
R. F. C. Hull, as above.
To R. F. C. HULL
August 30, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
I was tempted to do a specimen for you from KU. In citing
from the Upanishads, I find I hardly ever make an identical
version; in any case, I work directly from the text, choosing
words very carefully and bearing in mind the many parallel
passages. I have tried to translate for those who will not have
the background of comparative knowledge. But it must be
realized that to get the full content of a text a Commentary is
often really needed. For example, in KU 15, the J aws of
death are one form of the Symplegades, Janua Coeli; in IV. 1,
the inverted version (for which Plato has numerous parallels)
corresponds to the instaring of Western mystics; in III.9 ff, of
course, there is nothing unique in the use of the chariot
symbolism, more familiar in Platonic contextsand always a
formula becomes the more comprehensible the more one
becomes aware of its universality. But I suppose that Misch
points all this out, at least in the present contexts it is his affair
to have done so.
I dont expect to do more until, as I said, mid-October; the
difficulties arc not in the Sanskrit, but in finding the right
words with which to carry over as much as possible of the
meaning without obscurity. In III. 13, I used oblate, bccausc
the original verb throughout (sam) is literally to sacrifice,
give the quietus, and this is lost for all but philologists; i f one
speaks of the peaceful Self, where dedicated or immo
lated would be nearer, the Self of the sel f or selfless Self is
meant. Nevertheless, I think oblate is too recondite for
present purposes, so I would render K U IV. 13:
Stilli ng in the mi nd all spccch, the knowledge.
shoul d still the mi nd i tsel f in the gnosti c sel f (the reason)
T he Gnosti c is the Great, and the Great sel f is the
Sel f at peace.
Here are some other parts of the Katha Upanishad:
(3) K now thou that the Spiri t is the rider in the chari ot ,
the chari ot , the body:
K now that Reason is its fellow, M i nd it is that holds
the reins.
(4) T he powers of the soul arc the steeds, as they say; the
objects of perception, their pasture.
T he Spirit combi ned wi th the mind and its powers,
men of di scernment term the experi ment .
(NB: I t is a pi ty that we have no word correspondi ng to frui ti on
and meani ng one who has frui ti on o f .)
Katha . . . I I I .9-15:
(9) He, indeed, whose di scernment is that of the fell ow-rider,
one whose mi nd has the reins in hand
He reached the end of the track, the place of V i shnus
ul ti mate stride.
(10) A bove the powers of the soul are their aims, above
these aims is the mind,
A bove the mind, the reason, and above the reason
the Great Self (or Spirit)
(11) A bove the Great is the U nrevealed, and thereabove
the Person,
Beyond whom there is naught whatever: that is the goal -post,
that the end of the track.
(12) T he light of the Spiri t by all things hidden is not
apparent.
Y et it is seen by the sharp and subtl e eye of reason,
by subtl e seers,
(13) Obl ati ng speech in the mi nd, the knowledgable man should
then oblate the mind in the gnosti c sel f (the reason),
T he gnosti c in the Great, and the Great Self in the Obl ate
Self.
(14) Stand up! A wake! Win ye worths, and understand them
T he sharpened edge of a razor, hard to overpass, a difficult
path word of the poets, this.
(15) Soundless, untouchable, unshapen, unchanging, yes, and
tasteless, eternal, scentless too,
Wi thout begi nni ng or end, beyond the Great, i mmovable
whereon i ntent, one evades the j aws of death.
Katha . . . I V. 1, 2:
(1) T he Self-subsistent pierced the orifices outwards, therefore
it is that one looks forth, not at the Self within:
Y et the Contempl ati ve, seeking the U ndyi ng, wi th i nverted
vision, saw Himself.
(2) Chi l dren are they that follow after external loves, they walk
i nto the widespread snare of death;
But the Contempl ati ves, knowi ng the U ndyi ng, l ook not for
thi mmovabl e amongst things mobile here.
Katha . . . V .8-12:
(8) He who wakes in them that sleep, the Person who fashions
manifold loves,
He indeed is the Bri ght One, that is Brahma, callcd the
U ndyi ng;
On whom the worl ds depend; that no one soever transcends
This veril y, is That.
(9) As it_ is one Fire that indwel ls the worl d, and assumes the
semblance of every appearance,
So the I nner Self of all beings assumes the semblance
of every appearance, and is yet apart from all.
(10) A t it is the one Gale that indwells the worl d, and assumes
the semblance of every appearance,
So the one I nner Self of all beings assumes the semblance
of every appearance, and is yet apart from all.
(11) As the Sun, the whole worl ds eye, is unstained by the
outward faults of what he sees,
So the I nner Self of all beings is unstained by the ills
of the worl d, bei ng apart from them.
(12) T he I nner Self of all bei ngs, who makes his one form to be
many,
T hose who perceive Hi m wi thi n them, these, the Contempl a-
tives, thei rs and none others is everlasting felicity.
Katha . . . VI . 12, 13:
(12) Nei ther by words nor by the mind, nor by vision can He
be known;
H ow can He be known but by saying that HE I S ?
(13) He can indeed be known by the thought HE I S , and by the
truth of both his natures;
For whom He is known by the thought HE I S , then His
true nature presents itself.
KU, in the letter above = Katha Upanishad.
To R. F. C. HULL
September 26, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
Brahma and Brahman are both legitimate, but I prefer the
nominative form, Brahma: the important distinction is from
the masculine Brahma.
For Greek, Cornford is, of course, all right; J owett is
perfectly acceptable, but has a slightly Victorian flavour. In
general I use the Loeb Library versions, which are not always
perfect, but good on the whole. I also use the Loeb Library
version of Aristotle. The title ofj . Burnets book is Early Greek
Philosophy. In the case of any difficulty it should be easy to get
the advice of some Greek scholar in England.
In general, Sutras arc texts; Karkias rather of the nature of
commentaries, in verse.
I shall be glad to read the Brahman-Atman passages you refer
to. The only translation of Vacaspati Misras Samkhya-Tattva-
Kaumudi I know of is that by Ganganatha J ha, Bombay
Theosophical Society Publishing Fund, 1986; you could prob
ably find a copy at the Royal Asiatic Society or at the British
Museum. There is also a German version by Garbo in Abh
Bayerischen Akad Wiss Phil Kl, 19.3 (1892). For Vijnana Bhiksu,
seej. R. Ballantyne, Samkhya Aphorisms of Kapila in Trubncrs
Oriental Series (1885). For Narayana Tirtha (sic) see S. C.
Banerji, Samkhya Philosophy, Calcutta, 1898. For Sankhya
books in greater detail, see list in the Union List . . . (American
Oriental Series, No 7, 1935, Nos 2513ff.
I am using a borrowed typewriter, excuse results.
Very sincerely,
R. F. C. Hull, as above.
To R. F. C. HULL
October 18, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
In the first place, I am sending you my RV X.90.1 which
may give you some help on the general psychological
background.
2) Y our passage, This is perfect . . . (Yeats p 159): the
reference is to BU 5.1. The word he renders by perfect is
piirnam, which means pleroma, or as Hume has it, fulness;
perfect may be true, but it is not the meaning of the text.
Root in piirnam is pr, fill, same root as in pleroma.
3) I shall make some necessary spelling corrections on the
Ms; notably, Y ajnavalkya for Y adnavalkya throughout.
4) As regards your main question, I shall append my
proposed translation of BU IV. 1.2. Not beyond our ken in
the original is literally aparoksa, not out of sight, eye to eye
ie, face to face, coram\ cfin my RV paper, note 12, esp Taitt
Up 1.12, where pratyaksam = sdksat {pratyaksam, literally,
against the eyehence eye to eye). Such immediate vision
applies in the first place to the perception of ordinary objects
and contrasts with paroksam, out of sight (the word aksa,
eye, being present in all three words), which last applies to
all that has to do with the (invisible) Gods, who arc said to be
priva, fond of, or wonted to, the ob-scure, Cf Chapter V of
my Transformation of Nature in Art.
Now the translation:
Then U, the son of Cakra, asked him: Y ajnavalkya, he
said, demonstrate (or make known) to me the B[rahma].
Brahma face to face, not out of sight (saksat-aparoksat). He is
your Self that is within all things. But, Y ajnavalkya, which
self is it that is in all things? That which breathes together
with the breath (prana) is both yourself and all-within. That
which breathes (or expires when you expire) out with your
breathing out (apdtta) is your Self and all-within. That which
distributively breathes with your distributive breath (vyana) is
your Self and all-within. That which breathes with your
distributive breath (vyana) is your Self and all-within. That
which breathes upward (or aspires) with your breathing
upward (udana) is your Self and all-within.
Yajna is perfectly correct; the Brahma is manifested only by
its vital functions (prana, often explicitly = ayus, life); all the
vital and sensitive functions of the psyche are extensions of the
Spirit, Self, or Soul of the soul, thought of as seated at the centre
of our being and in all beings. In the next part, U objects that Y
has only referred to various aspects of the G, just as if one were
asked what an animal is, and told only for example, cows and
horseswhich answer docs not tell us what an animal as such is.
Y explains that the B of A is not an object that can be known by
a subject. . . . So, 2) U, the son of C, said you have expressed
it, as one might say yonder cow, or yonder horse. (Again, I
ask), demonstrate to me the B[rahman], not out of sightwho
is the Self within all things. (Y repeats) He is your Self, the
all-within. Y ou cannot see the seer of seeing, or hear the hearer
of hearing, or think the thinker of thought, or discriminate the
discriminator. For He is your Self, the all-within; all else is a
misery. Thereat, U, son of C, desisted.
The unknowability of the Self is often insisted uponas also
by J ung, who points out that only the Ego can be known
objectively; the eye cannot see itself, and so it is with the
universal Subject. I have read Sankaras commentary and made
my version as literal as possible, without thinking of anything
that Misch says.
I dont see that Misch is far off the mark, but he does seem to
attribute to U what is really Y s doctrine (and the common
one), viz, that the functions of life are the manifestations of B,
and it is this mistake (which I think you should regard as a
lapsus linguae to be corrected) that makes Mischs account
confusing to me. Moreover, I would not say was reduced to
the identification of the various vital functions; B is manifested
in these functions, not reduced to them. For this epiphany
otherwise formulated, see Kaush Up II. 12.13 (Hume, pp 316,
317) and cf BU 1.5.21 (ibid, p 91). Perhaps you had best let me
know how far all this meets your difficulty, before I try to go
into it any further, i f needed. In any case, I shall regard the
translation of BU 4.1.2 as done. I might add that the Breath
(pratja) is repeatedly a tremendous concept, not merely a flatus,
but an immanent principle equated with the Sun, Self, Brahma,
Indra, etc. On the Breaths, see also note 29, 2nd para, in my
RV paper.
Very sincerely,
R. F. C. Hull, as above.
R V X. 90.1: aty atisthad dasangulam', Journal of the American Oriental Society,
LXVI , 1946, no 2.
Kaush UP = Kaushitaki Upanishad
BU = Brhddaranyaka Upanishad
To MISS I. B. HORNER
14 May 1947
Dear Miss Horner:
Brahma-khetta, cf Buddha-khetta, Vism 414; also, Vism 220
punna-khetta=brahma-khetta. In Stt 524 T think brahma-
khetta=brahma-loka as distinct from Indra-loka, and perhaps
we should understand Brahma. The khetta-jina is one who is
no longer concerned with any fields, having mastered and
done with all. Khetta-bandhana is attached to or connection with
any field znd^samyoga; to see this read BG 13.26. All three
fields are spheres of samsara, and the khetta-jina is one who has
done [with] them all, and has made the uttara-tiissaranam. Is this
adequate?
Thag 533, taya, must be ablative or instr., neither of which
seems to justify in, so I would think for thee better than
in thee. Of course, saccanamo, as elsewhere, is whose name
is Truth, not in very Truth, for which one would expect
simply saccam at the beginning of the sentence, just as satyam is
used to mean verily.
By the way, J IV. 127, attanam attano is interesting, and must
mean Self of the sel f, as in MU 6.7, atmanotma.
I wouldnt like used up for nibbuto. One good sense would
be dowsed. By the way, cf Oratio ad Graecos..., O teaching
that quenches the fire within the soul.
Kindest regards,
PS: With Vin 1.34: jivha addita cf J ames iii, 6: The tongue is a
fire and setteth afire the wheel of becoming.
4
Miss I. B. Horner, Secretary of the Pali Text Society and a well known
scholar living in London. She collaborated with AK C in The Living Thoughts
o f Gotama the Buddha, London, 1948.
Vism = Visuddhimaga
Sn = Suttanipata
Thag = Theragatha
] =Jataka
Vin = Vinaya-Pitaka
The above are Pali texts, the language of Hinaya Buddhism.
To MISS I. B. HORNER
Date uncertain
Dear Miss Horner:
Re sclf-naughting: this is the same as Self-realisation.
Abhinibbutatto (= abhinibbout attana atta) but the atta referred to
is not the same! In fact, nibbuto applies only to self and vimutto to
Self. I f the B[uddha] is nibbuto this does not mean that he is
extinguished, but that he is abhinibbut atto, one in whom self has
been totally extinguished; he is therefore sitibhuto.
He that would save his soul, let him lose it. He who
would follow me, denegat seipsum (not an ethical but an
ontological demand). All scripture cries aloud for freedom
from self. So in Islam, as God says to the man at the door,
Whos there? I . Begone. No room for two here. All this
is quite universal and not in the least peculiar to Buddhism.
D 11.120 katam me saranam attano\ this atta certainly not the
maranadhammo atto (M. I. 167), only the former is the saruppam
attano of Sn 368. The great error is to see attam anattani, Self in
what-is-not-Self, (NB: I am very careful with my s and S), eg,
in the sabbe dhamma anatta. . .
AKC
Miss I. B. Horner, as above.
To MISS I. B. HORNER
J une 24, 1946
Dear Miss Horner:
Appamada: lit, absence of infatuation, intoxication (mad),
pride, etc, implies diligence, no doubt, but diligence is hardly a
translation, is it? Y ours of J une 21. Im glad we agree on several
points. I think we had better keep ariyanworthy would be
good in itself, but would not convey what is needed. Regarding
samaya and asamaya, Im very sure that your unstable and
stable arc good in themselves (whether or not in every
context): this would fit in very well with khana, where alone
true thiti can be foundkhana, strictly speaking is that in which
a thing is in-stant, eg, as arahat paramgato thale titthati.
AKC,
Miss I. B. Horner, as above.
To MISS I. B. HORNER
J uly 2, 1946
Dear Miss Horner:
I have yours of 9th and 20th and an undated one with
Householders. Im in such a position, too, that I can hardly
find another minute to give! Anyhow, final decisions on
renderings must be yours: it is good that we are agreed on
many of them, eg, metta, love. To be sure Bhagavata is a word
common to other religions, especially early Vaisnavism con
temporary with the great Nikayasand this too must be taken
into consideration in connection with the great importance
attached to bhatti = bhakti in the sense of devoted service;
beneficent or generous seems to be the real meaning of
Bhagavator wealthy dispenser. Perhaps you are right in
retaining lord, though it is a paraphrase rather than a
translation. . . Viriyavada seems to me that Doctrine of ener
gy implying (as often stated in other words) that manly
effort must be made. Kammavada, doctrinc that there is an
ought to be done. Sanditthika and ditth eva dhamme seem to me
both = here and nowor one might differentiate by saying
immediate for the first. I do think it important to render
khana by moment or instant.
(Incidentally, Macdonald in his, writing on the Islamic
doctrine of the moment suggests a Buddhist origin for it; but I
find more Greek sources also, than he does.)
Pamada is something like elevation in the way one can call
a drunk person elevated, but probably temperance and
intemperance are the best words to use. It is a pity that there
is no literal opposite of infatuation.
The whole problem of nirvana, etc, is very hard: one should
always bear in mind the desirability of using renderings that are
not incompatible with the putting out of a fire, which was
certainly the dominant content for a Buddhist.
Certainly, -jo and -nimmito are more or less equivalent terms:
the other = factus; both apply to production.
Perhaps formed would be best for -nimmitoformed by,
or even.moulcd by; -jo, more literally, begotten o f . The
idea that the pupil is reborn of his teacher is common. Viraga:
Im willing to accept aversion. Skr vairaga is really contemptus
mundi. For gocara, field would do for psychological contexts.
Ajjhattam and paccattam seem to me nearly the same: perhaps
inwardly rather than subjectively which has a slightly
different valueor as you say personally, with application to
ones own experience. . . .
Ariya is difficult unless one says just Aryan, but that
would need reservations; when Eckhart says thefastidious soul
can rest on nothing that has name, that is the meaningthe
notion is of an elite. . . .
I agree to de- (or dis-) becoming for vibhava\ but it is difficult,
too, because de-becoming (ent werden) is elsewhere the great
desideratum, to have ceased to become = nibbana\ therefore,
vibhava really implies, I think, becoming-otherthe two
together = equal becoming (thus) or not becoming (thus).
That is all I can do now!
AKC
Miss I. B. Horner, as above.
To MISS I. B. HORNER
J uly 26, 1946
Dear Miss Horner:
For nibbanam and the verb, I would not object to quen
ching (as in Vism 306, of the fire of anger); this would
correlate well with cooling for sitibhava. In fact, parinibbuto
sitibhuto as quenched and coolcd seems pretty good.
AKC
Miss I. B. Horner, as above.
To GEORGE SARTON
November 9, 1944
Dear Sarton:
I enclose some Addenda for Gradation and Evolution II.
As to the critique of Northrups article, I found it better, and
even necessary, to rewrite the letter in the form of a review in
which I also briefly allude to the other parts of the book in
which his essay appears. Ill send this to you soon, and then you
can pass it on.
Cordially,
PS: I just received Edgcrtons Bhagavad Gita (HOS 38 & 39). I
am rather appalled by the spectacle of a scholar who confesses
ignorance of and lack of interest in metaphysics, and yet
undertakes such a task. However good his scholarship, he has
hardly any more understanding of what is being talked about
than Whitney of the Atharva Veda. It is works like these that
have led some Indian scholars to speak of European scholarship
<t Ml
as a crime !
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Gradation and Evolution, II, Isis, XXXVI I I , 1947, numbers 111 and 112.
Franklin Edgcrton translation of the Bhagavad Gita, Harvard Oriental Series,
Numbers 111 and 112.
W. D. Whitney, Atharva-Veda Samhita, Harvard Oriental Series, No 7.
To GEORGE SARTON
November 4, (year uncertain)
My dear Sarton:
Apropos of our discussion of spoken languages. Cf Keith in
Aitareya Aranyaka, Oxford, 1909, p 196, no 19. Sanskrit can
only have been a vernacular very long ago (say before 800
B C). Later, the educated classes used a Prakrit for every day
purposes, though still understanding Sanskrit, which was
partially understood even by peasants (as now). Sanskrit is still
sufficiently widely known that some European scholars travell
ing in India could use it as a lingua franca. I take it modern Greek
is nearer to ancient Greek than Hindi is to Sanskrit.
AKC
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
To MRS C. MORGAN
Date uncertain
Dear Mrs Morgan:
When you first spoke of stages I thought you had in mind
the successive levels of reference or stages of being attained in
contemplative practice. For stages in the progress of the
individual, I suggest G. I. Wade, Thomas Traherne (Princeton,
1944), cf pp 52, 53 and 62, 64.
At the university . . . I saw that there were things in this
world of which I had never dreamed; glorious secrets and
glorious persons past imagination. . . . Nevertheless, some
things were defective, too. There was never a tutor that did
professly teach Felicity, though that be the mistress of all
other sciences. Nor did any of us study these things but as
aliens, which we ought to have studied as our own
enjoyments. We studied to inform our knowledge, but knew
not for what end we so studied. And for lack of aiming at a
certain end we erred in the manner.
Later Traherne realized that:
Outward things . . . lay so well, methought, that they
could not be mended: but I must be mended to enjoy
them.
Wade adds:
That mending, that purification of the will, constitutes the
spiritual history of the next ten years.
In that growth a large part of the means was certainly Plato,
Plotinus, Hermes. Searching the Scriptures is a liberating
procedure; one learns to think, not for oneself, but correctly,
which is better.
For the Kundalini, about which you enquired: cf Avalon,
The Serpent Power, Luzac, 1919.
Further for stages the following might be useful: J ohn
Cordelier, The Spiral Way, Meditations upon the Fifteen Mysteries
of the Soul's Ascent (Watkins, London, 1922) and perhaps
Dietrich von Hilderbrand, Liturgy and Personality (Longmans
Green, N Y, 1943).
Other references include Fritz Marti, Religion, Philosophy
and the College, in Review of Religion, VII, 1942, 3; J . A.
Stewart, The Myths of Plato (Macmillan, N Y, 1905); N. K.
Chadwick, Poetry and Prophecy (Cambridge, 1942); Avalon,
Shakti and Shakta (Luzac); and Swami Nikhilananda, The
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, N. Y ., 1942).
It is just because what wc are after is hardly to be found in
Ncwburyport that one must read and read; it can be found in
the living books, which are available even here and now.
This is all I can think of at the moment. Wc enjoyed your
visit very much.
Very sincerely,
Mrs C. Morgan, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
To MURRAY FOWLER
March 4, 1944
Dear Murray:
I read your review with pleasure. I can only promise to think
about the love and ethic problem. One would have to start
from the question, what is the true object of love? One could
show that the Upanishads, Aristotle and Aquinas agree that it is
our Self (if wc know which sel f); and that the same is
implicit in I nasmuch as ye have done it unto these, ye have
done it unto Me. Altruism, the love of others as such is as
much as the hatred of others a delusion. Even if we submit to
this delusion of others, our love for them should be founded
in our love of the One.
As for ethics, one would have to show that, as for Plato,
there is no real distinction of ethics from politics.
As for the other point, sannyasa: this corresponds to the
Pauline distinction of liberty from law. I think I made it clear
that a complete socicty must recognize that the f inal end of
the individual is one of deliverance from his obligations;
although an end that can only be approached by a fulfilment of
them. Cf Edgerton in J AOS 62.152, recognizing the ordinary
and the extraordinary norms. The very concepts of finite and
infinite necessitate both. . . .
Kindest regards,
PS: I take it that the true doctrine of inaction is not to do
nothing, but to act without acting; as in the Chinese doctrine
of uu wei.
Murray Fowler, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, friend of Dr
Coomaraswamy and lifelong student of the Rig Veda.
To GEORGE SARTON
February 6, 1945
Dear Sarton:
I did not know of Dattas change of life (which is one way of
referring to that kind of retirement). The word Saha must have
been either sadhu or sannyasin (the former literally hitting the
mark, the latter giving up, ie, surrendering all duties and
rights). This represents the 4th stage or the normal Indian
schema of life (and also corresponds to Platos concept of mans
latter days, Rep 498, C, D . . .). Sannyasin is pretty near to
what Eckhart calls a truly poor man. On the ghats at Benares
you will find amongst others, university graduates and
cx-millionaires, now truly poor men owning nothing. By
the way, too, there arc 4 American sadhus in India; my wife
knew one of them and he was a good friend of our boys. . . .
As a rule, the funeral rites arc performed for a man who
becomes a sannyasin\ he becomes in fact what Rumi calls a
dead man walking; cf Angelus Silcsius, stirb ehe du stirbst. We
ourselves, in fact, in a few years more, plan to return to India to
approximate, as far as it is practicable for us, to this ideal. In
India, one does not look forward to an old age of economic
independence but to one of independence of economics. There
are many humbugs in India, but as one sadhu said to my wife, as
long as there arc even 2 real sadhus in 100, so long there will be
an India.
Did I commend to you M. Becks Science in Education in
Modern Schoolman, J an 1945?
I have a number of things in the press that will interest you. I
am still working on the Early I conography of Sagittarius,
but am almost bogged down in the mass of material (cherubs,
centuars, J anua Coeli, Rape of Soma, etc); and on the concept
of Ether in the Greek and Sanskrit sources.
Perhaps we shall see you at the Pelliot tea tomorrow.
Kindest regards,
PS: Y ou will find an old account of a man becoming a
Sannyasin in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad XI .4.1 (in Hume will
do), in which the Atman (Humes Soul) is the Common Man
whom we have now reduced to the dimensions of Tom, Dick,
and Harry, and whose legitimate title of Fuehrer has now been
given to tyrants!
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Early I conography of Sagittarius was incomplete at the time of A K Cs
death and has not been published.
To MRS NORBERT WEINER
December 14, 1945
Dear Mrs Weiner:
This is just a line to improve upon what I was trying to say
the other evening. I quite agree that we have to put our own
fires out, and ought to help our neighbour when his house is on
fire. But in either case, such activities are distractions from our
own proper work; and the real point is that helping others
directly is not a vocation, and that we have no right to make a
business of it. We ought to have our own work to do, and
dqvote our energies to it, with only such interruptions as are
inevitable when they arise; we certainly ought not to look for
occasions that call upon our time, but only ought to attend to
them when we are naturally made aware of them.
Very sincerely,
Mrs Norbert Weiner, wife of Norbcrt Weiner, professor at the Mas
sachusetts I nstitute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and
author of the popular book that philosophized about the dawn of the
computer age, Cybernetics.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
J anuary 13, 1938
Sir,
Apropos of various Articles in recent issues of the New
English Weekly, it seems to me that what wc need is not an
emphasis on Christian ethics, goodwill, ctc. What we need is
the revival of Christian dogma. (This is precisely where the
East is of use and helpI have even been told by Catholics that
my own work has given them renewed confidence, which is
just the effect it should have.) . . . Ethics have no power o f their
own to bring about peace or justice or even to hold their own in
theory; they have become mere sentiment and will do little or
nothing to better the world. With a revival of dogma you will
have a new life put into both making and doing (art and
prudence). Wc may then once more learn to act, not prettily,
but correctly. I f people would only treat prudence as they do
mathematics: a matter of right or wrong, not from feeling,
but in the same sense that 2+2 = 4, and not 5!
AKC
To PAUL HANLEY FURFEY, S.J.
February 2, 1938
Dear Professor Furfey:
Enclosed may interest you. I should mention it is an extract
from a private letter, published without permission, hence its
colloquial style.
Very sincerely,
PS: Still, I feel the point about dogma is important, and that
conduct should be first a matter of order and secondly a matter of
the will (will following the intellect).
Paul Henley Furfey, S. J ., department of sociology, Catholic University of
America, Washington, D. C., USA.
The previous letter was enclosed; it had been sent to the editor of The New
English Weekly, a personal friend of AK C, and was published by him despite
the fact that it was part of a personal letter.
To GEORGE SARTON
October 14, 1938
Dear Sarton:
Many thanks for your interesting leaflets. I only rather
demur to the idea of individual conscience, since I cannot but
regard the conscience (the word of course originally meant
consciousness, an awareness) as impersonalin the sense
that the active intellect is for some Schoolmen impersonal
and that Synteresis is impersonal and the Vedic Inner
Controller, the Platonic and neo-Platonic hegemon, viz, the
Spirit of God within you.
Further, I believe good will can only be [universalized]*
insofar as the good will is made to rest on strictly intellectual
(metaphysical) sanctions, so conduct is regulated by knowledge
rather than by opinion-feeling. A consent of East and West can
only proceed from this highest ground and must first of all (as
Guenon says) therefore be the work of an elite.
Very sincerely,
* The word universalized is supplied because of the illegibility of the text,
but it complements and does not contradict the context of the letter.
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
To GEORGE SARTON
J uly 13, 1947
Dear Sarton:
Y our birthday book is full of interest. Buffons tout ce qui peut
etre, est is very good philosophy. Leakes paragraph 3 on page
264 is quite ridiculousnot only as if anyone ever did anything
without a view to some result to be secured or avoided, but also
he does not realise that the whole business of doing unto others
rests upon the question Who am /?, and Who are you? And again
he knows nothing of the contexts (people are so glib in citing
Indian terms and ideas secondhand!), or of such contexts as the
Buddhas Whoever would nurse me, let him nurse the
sick. . .
Quite another point: I find it of the highest interest that
Dante (in De Monarchia) uses God and Nature with a singular
verbas i f the expression were a grammatical dual denoting a
mixta persona (not that the one is two, but that the two are
one, as Hermes says). This is a survival of the oldest
meanings. . ., those of the early Greek physicists, and one
that can be continuously traced thereafter, side by side with the
other meaning (that of natura naturata).
Kindest regards,
George Sarton, as on p. 274.
To MEYER SCHAPIRO
May 2, 1932
Dear Professor Schapiro:
On rereading your letter it occurs to me to add one thing to
mine. Y ou speak of the values of contemplation being detached
from those of daily use. To my mind, speculation about a kind
of truth conccivcd to exist in vacuo is nothing but curiosity;
moreover, it goes for me that the ultimate truth is precisely and
by definition that which cannot be known. However, so far as
the best sort of relative truth goes, and apart from my own
views, I would say that in India we have no philosophy pursued
as such for its own sake, for the sole purpose of constructing a
network of words that shall be as far as possible unassailable.
Indians have sometimes said with perfect justice that European
students cannot understand Indian philosophy (or as it ought
rather to be called, metaphysics) because they do not live it.
Indian metaphysics is in origin a means to power, in develop
ment becoming means to the summum bonum; it is never an end
in itself. On this sec Guenon, L Homme et son devenir selon le
Vedanta (Paris, 1924 [and numerous subsequent editions]). So
we shall not get anywhere as to understanding the East i f we
start from an idea of contemplation as a thing in and for its own
sake; it is a means to becoming what we are, but there are other
means concommittant and inseparable. Of course, in saying
means, I speak empiricallythere arc no means to enlighten
ment (perfection), to a thing of which we are already possessed,
but only means to the destruction of our unawareness of it,
which unawareness is our imperfection.
Very sincerely,
Dr Meyer Schapiro, professor of art history, Columbia University, New
Y ork.
To THE ART BULLETIN
Date uncertain
Sir:
In Professor Schapiros review of the Survey of Persian Art in
the March* issue of the Art Bulletin, I sympathize with his
criticisms of the Editors tendency to isolate and exalt Persian
art from and above all others. But when he says that The
renderings of terror and rage would be as unlikely here . . .,
and that the rigid hands of the archaic statues were not
representations of psychological states, but characteristics of a
style, in the words of Apollonius of Tyana, simply the style
of the ancients, false conclusions are implied. For there is no
such thing as simply the style: nothing happens by chance.
The better we come to understand the mind of the ancients (I
find it more intelligible than the mind of the moderns), the
more clearly wc see that their style corresponds to this
mind. I say mind deliberately, because it is to the mind far
more than to the feelings that art (and especially geometric art)
is pertinent. All that Plato has to say about art is tantamount to
praise of Greek archaic or even geometric art, and dispraise of
Greek naturalistic art; while for Aristotle the representation of
character in tragedy is still subordinate to that of action, ie,
essence, since for him as for the ancients generally, the man is
what he does.
Whether Professor Schapiro means to say that style is an
accidcnt, or that a style is brought into being solely for
aesthetic reasons, he is ignoring the fact that the style is the
man (or group of men) and inevitably expresses their point of
view, i f it is not to be dismissed as an artificial style, which
would be rather ridiculous for the neolithic pottery painting.
Style reveals essence; and if an archaic face is impassive, it
means that those whose style this was, or rather those with
whom this style originated, were stoics in this sense and that
of the Bhagavad Gita, able to stand up against pleasure and
pain, and in this sense, although not in ours, apathetic.
Moreover, is not Professor Schapiro confusing style with
iconography? Primitive art is essentially an imitation of the
actions of the Gods and Heroes, and as Plato says in this
connection, whoever would represent these invisible realities
truly must have known themselves as they really are. But
nothing can be known except in the mode of the knower; to the
extent that the Gods are man-made they take the shapes that
are imagined by their worshippers, and these are an index to
the worshippers themselves. Nor must wc forget that the body
is traditionally an image of the soul, which is the form of the
body; just as the shape of the work of art is determined by its
form. Things such as facial expression and gesture are therefore
significant of states of being, as is explicit in Xenophon,
Memorabilia, III. 10.8; where textual sources are available, as in
India, these gestures arc matters of prescription, not of taste,
the intention being to conform the icon to its paradigm, so that
there may be what Plato calls not so much likeness as an
adequate representation. It is surely to all sculpture that the
remarks of Socrates quoted by Xenophon, Mem III. 10.6-8
apply: he concludes, Then must not the menacing glance of
fighters be correctly represented, and the triumphant glance of
victors imitated? Most assuredly. So then, the sculptor is able to
represent in his images the activities of the soul. Unless we
mean to stop short at the aesthetic surfaces of works of art,
ignoring their content, it will not be enough to know the what
of iconography, we must also understand its why. And in so far
as the theme is mythical, as is notably the case in primitive
works of art, this will mean a reductio artium ad theologiam, a
reference of the arts to theology.
AKC
* The year was 1941, and this exchange appeared in volume XXI I I of the Art
Bulletin.
To TREES (A BRITISH JOURNAL)
1945date not specified further
Mr Finlay sons Providential Order of Fairplay
Mr Richard St Barbe Baker, whom I have had the good
fortune to know personally, and whose own book, Africa
Drums, I greatly admire, asks me to write a note on
Mr Finlaysons Providential Order of Fairplay. This minimum, as
he also calls it, is one of fairplay to earth, neighbour, and
(better) sel f. This better sel f is, for the philosopher or
theologian at least, anything but a rather vague term; for this
Self of the sel f, the self s immortal Leader, as we call it in
India, is at once the God of Socrates and our Common
Man, the immanent deity, and it is to this Man and not to the
average man (a statistical illusion, of much utility to demago
gues and bankers) that the term common is properly
applicable; it is to this Man in every man and woman, this
Fuhere, that obedience is primarily due. I f only we had in mind
a century of this Common Man!
Fairplay is a good enough word, although with rather too
much the flavour of the sporting instinct. I would prefer,
without insisting upon, the rather more pregnant and more
catholic term J ustice, Greek dikaiosune. This word is ren
dered by righteousness, (. . .and all these things shall be
added unto you); but better by justice in most translations
from other Greek sources. Why the seeking first of this J ustice
should involve (as it necessarily does) a provision for all human
needs, will be understood if wc presume that the connotation is
that of Platos definition, for whom J ustice is for every man to
do what it is his to do, in accordance with his own nature, to
do what it is natural for him to do, or, more colloqually,
mind his own proper business. This is the definition of a
vocational society and of fairplay to neighbour.
Similarly, in India, where the word for J ustice is Dharma: and
this is Dharma, and the means of his own perfection, for
evcryman to fulfil his own share of justice, his sva-dharma, that
function which is determined for him by his own nature and
native endowment. This, in turn, is a statement of the principle
of the nowadays so much misunderstood caste system in
which, as the late A. M. Hocart (whose book Les Castes is the
best on the subject), says chaque occupation est une sacerdoce
every metier a ministry, to which he adds that the feudal system,
a system of personal relations and mutual loyalties, has only
been painted in such dark colours because it is incompatible
with an industrial organization where there arc no personal
relations and production is not for use but for profit. The castc
or vocational forms of society, once universal (not only
Indian), provided for all human needs, just because of the
variety of human endowment (It is the wealth and genius of
variety among our people, both in character and kind, that
needs to be rescued nowthe Earl of Portsmouth, Alternatives
to Death, page 30) . . ., and by the same token, at the same time
that it provided for every mans individual dignity, such
societies represent the only true form of democracy, based
upon the all-important concept of Equality, so much stressed
by the Greeks. Modern democracies, on the other hand, so
called, are forms of mob-rule, resulting only in a balance of
power as between groups of competing interestsan entirely
different conception from that of a government according ttf
J ustice or Fairplaythe exercise of power by one who rules
in his own interest. The conflict of interests in a modern
democracy, so called, inevitably leads to a Dictatorship, ie,
to the victory of the interest of some one class, whether Capita
list (as in Facism) or proletarian (as in a Soviet), cf Plato, Laws
700 ff.
This leads to the further consideration, almost always
overlooked, that the Christian concept of a K ingdom of God
on earth remains completely unintelligible for so long as we
have no clear understanding, but only a prcjudical misconcep
tion of what was the Classical and Oriental theory of Kingship
to which this expression refers, as to a well known pattern. The
true King, like his divine prototype, is a viceroy, governing in
nobodys private interest, whether his own or that of any one
class, but according to J ustice, or Equality (Im for Monarchy
for the sake of Equality, as Goldsmith said). No King, for
example, would permit such commercial exploitations of
natural resources, no such a rape of the earth as is possible
and perhaps inevitable in a so called democracy or state of free
enterprise, such as we call in India the law of the sharks.
But here again, in speaking of Equality, wc have to be
careful. What the ancients, eg, Euripides or Philo, meant by
Equality, as the only true basis of polity, was not the
arithmetical and egalitarian equality that is interpreted in a
contempt of aristocracy and the boast that Im as good as
you arc, or the belief in the equal validity of everyones
opinions. The Classical Equality is not an arithmetical but a
proportionate equality of exactly the same sort as that
proportion that makes a symbol an adequate representa
tion of its archetype, and it is this kind of Equality that
corresponds to J ustice as defined above. Rather than a
government by counting all noses (a valid procedure only
within groups, guilds or castes of similarly gifted men), the
Classical Equality means from each according to his ability,
and to each according to his need.
One last word: the primary European exponent of J ustice or
Fairplay in this sense was Plato, who has nevertheless been
freely accused of advocating a totalitarian or technocratic form
of government. In two notable passages, on the contrary, Plato
expressly lays it down that the capacity for justice is not, like
that for particular sciences or arts, private to any individuals or
classes of men, but accessible to all; and that it is for those who
are really just men, and only for them, even i f they are illiterate
or in any other way devoid of technical training, to take part in
government.
Until we are prepared to return from the notion of a
government (whether internal or international) by a balance of
power, from the notion of the government of a minority by a
majority, and from that of the government of colonies by
self-styled emperors, to a notion of government in terms of
J ustice, Equality or Fairplay, we might as well abandon all
hopes for a better world. No plans will, of themselves,
bring into being a better world; the creation of a kingdom of
heaven on earth demands a change of heart, alike as regards our
fellow men and that nature that we boast of conquering,
but have forgotten how to woo and win and live with.
AKC
H. G. D. Finlayson is not further identified. Similarly, his Providential Order
of Fairplay could not be identified from any of the standard bibliographic
tools, though the remark near the beginning of the letter suggests that it was
a book or pamphlet. This communication from AK C (published in Trees,
IX, 1945, no 2) is included here despite the unavailability of the original,
because the sequence of letters that follow would be less meaningful without
it.
Richard St Barbe Baker, Africa Drums, London, 1945.
A. M. Hocart, Les Castes; see Bibliography for English translation.
To MR H. G. D. FINLAYSON
J uly 14, 1944
Dear Mr Finlayson:
Many thanks for your letter and enclosures. So far as I can
tell from this rather brief material, I am fully in agreement with
you on the provident minimum of decency. Regarding I
AM, a good deal depends on all that we understand by this.
But by your equation of the individual spiritual life with the
cultivation of our better sel f, I presume we see together. In
my article Sir Gawain . . . in Speculum (J an 1944), I pointed
out that the true argument is not Cogito ergo sum, but Cogito ergo
Est. However, I dont see my way at present to write anything
specifically on the minimum.
Regarding cosmic stricture, I think Przyluski, La Participa
tion might interest you. On the other hand, also Giono, Letters
aux paysans.
Very sincerely,
H. G. D. Finlayson, as above.
Sir Gawain and the Green K night: Indra and Namuci, Speculum, XI X,
1944.
J . Przyluski, La Participation.
J ean Giona, Lettre aux paysans.
To MR H. G. D. FINLAYSON
Date uncertain, but presumably autumn 1944
Dear Mr Finlayson:
Many thanks for yours of August 22 (my 67th birthday). I
certainly do not see anything in your minimum as defined in
your Statement of account. What you call the charitable
poise seems to me much more actual in other religions than in
Christianity, with its Extra ecclesium nulla salus; although, of
course, this formula is not to be taken literally, Christian
theology recognizing a baptism of the spirit as well as the
baptism of water. I dont think you need be afraid of any
spread of interest in Comparative Religion, but only of a
wrong approach to the subject. The fact of the universal
enunciation of the fundamental doctrines, often in almost the
same idioms, is actually very impressive; this universality
deriving from the Perennial Philosophy on which all religions
ultimately rest. I think the recent paper on The Only
Transmigrant would interest you as it deals with the divine
immanance as the only real basis of agreement
Very sincerely,
H. G. D. Finlayson, as above.
On the One and Only Transmigrant, Journal of the American Oriental
Society, LXIV, Supplement 3, 1944.
To H. G. D. FINLAYSON
November 2, 1944
Dear Mr Finlayson:
I think you would be interested in Prof F. W. Bucklers
writing on the K ingdom of God on Earth and the direct
development of this subject from the doctrine of kingship,
apart from which the notion of the Kingdom on Earth cannot be
understood. Of these writings, the most easily available is the
Epiphany of the Cross (Hcffcr, Cambridge, England).
Regarding tolerance and charity, J ohn I would seem to
support that the baptism of the spirit is superior to the
baptism of water, as one would naturally suppose. The latter
is equivalent to initiatory rebirth and has its equivalents in the
initiations of other religions, eg, the Upanayana by which the
Brahman by birth becomes a Brahman in fact.
Very sincerely,
H. G. D. Finlayson, as above.
F. W. Buckler, cf page 72.
To H. G. D. FINLAYSON
December 22, 1944
Dear Mr Finlayson:
Common duty: in the first place I would say that the original
reference of the expression Homo communis was to the Son of
Man immanent in every man, and it is only in this sense that I
like to use the expression common man; the egalitarian and
democratic sense being only that of a man so common that
he can be said to come in carloads. By the same token, the
question of the better sel f and of true self love as
commended by Aristotle, Aquinas, and in the Upanishadssee
the the J AOS Supplement 3 (which I sent you), page 41, note
82. All traditional sources arc in agreement that the prime
necessity is to know Thysel f, ic, which of the two that
dwell together in us is our real Self, that Self for the sake of
which alone all things are loveable. I am in fullest agreement
about the necessity of recognizing a common basis of under
standing, but sec no basis for such a common understanding
other than that of the philosophia perennis, which was the linqua
franca of all cultures before the confusion of tongues.
Very sincerely,
H. G. D. Finlayson, as above.
On the One and Only Transmigrant, see previous letter.
To HORACE M. KALLEN
December 7, 1943
Dear Prof Kallcn:
I write to thank you for sending me the J efferson paper.
There is very much in his notions about art with which I
heartily agree, especially as summarised in the beginning of
your section VI.
On the other hand, naturally, I do not agree with your
interpretation and estimate of feudal, ie, vocational, societies,
for I hold with those who believe that the need for a
restoration of the cthics of vocation has become the central
problem of society. I will only go into this for a moment in
conncction with art. In the vocational societies it is not only
held that to heautou prattein kata phusin is of the very essence of
justice (dikaiosune, rendered in the New Testament by right
eousness) but our conception of fine or useless art, and of
connoisscurship as a luxury arc unknown; all art is for use,
and to be judged by its utility (not, of course, in the narrow
utilitarian sense, but with reference to the needs of the whole
man). Y our inference that the artist is only a ijieans to the
consumers ends is perfectly correct, but does not involve what
you infer. One can best grasp the relations i f wc consider first
the case in which the artist is working for himself, eg, building
his own house; in this case it is evident that the artist as such is
means to the man as such. There is no difference in principle
when artist [and consumer] arc two different persons; how can
the maker be other than means to the user? The user (patron,
consumer) is the first and last cause of the work; it is done for
him and directed to him; all other causes, including the efficient
cause, arc by hypothesis means to this end. The balance
here is corrected in various ways. In the first place, in such
societies, the artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is
a special kind of artist; hence, while A is means to B, in one
relation, B is means to A in another. Members of a vocational
society, in other words, provide for one anothers needs, and
each in turn does a service to the other. There is nothing
whatever degrading in this servility. In the second place, in
such societies the fractioning of the human faculty involved
in our mcchanical and industrialised methods of production has
not arisen; the artist is still an individual responsible for the
product, either individually or through his guild. His work is
never, therefore, entirely servile (using the word now in its
more technical sense), but both free and servile; free inasmuch
as he works by art, and servile inasmuch as he works by hand.
It is in our socicty, preeminently, that excellence in the liberal
arts is the stuff of honour in the eyes of men and that workmen
are not capable of this excellence or ever worthy of such
honour.
Cordially
H. M. Kallcn, New Y ork, USA.
To H. M. KALLEN
December 9, 1943
Dear Professor Kallcn:
Many thanks for your kind note. I dont, however, agree
with your interpretation of the record. As I see it, men have
never been less free (except, of course, to work or starve)
than here and now. The notion of a hierarchy of functions I
accept. But despising the worker and treating him as a tool of
the consumer is not attributed to Christian doctrine, but to
the abandonment of the Christian doctrine against usury and
the accompanying gradual industrialization substitution of
factory for workshop, etc. Exactly the same process can be
watched today wherever industrial methods impinge upon
vocational societies; the responsible workman is reduced to a
producer of raw materials. The workman to be despised (or,
I would rather say, pitied) is one whose production is for the
needs of the body alone, and not for the needs of the soul
together and simultaneously (Platos demand, and according to
the anthropologists, the condition that existed in savage
societies). Also, there is a great deal of difference between being
the tool of the consumer, and the servant of the consumer;
one involves degradation, not the other.
Very sincerely,
H. M. Kallcn, as above.
To BERNARD KELLY
Date uncertain, but 1943 or later
Dear Mr Kelly:
It is not very easy to give a brief and at the same time
adequate answer to your question. I would say that from the
I ndian point of view, Laborare est orare; and that the emphasis
laid upon perfection in doing-and-making (karma) in terms of
vocation, by which at the same time the man perfects both his
work and himself, is very strong. The Bhagavad Gita defines
Y oga as skill in works (here skill is wisdom, just as Greek
sophia was originally skill). Furthermore, of the Hindu terms
for Sacrifice, karma (action) is precisely a doing in the sense of
sacra facere. This establishes the norm of all activity; as I have
tried to indicate in Hinduism and Buddhism, the requirements
of divine service and the satisfaction of human needs are
inseparable.
Again, there is no liberation but for those who are all in act
(krtakrtyah, having done what there was to be done). I think
it is difficult for the modern Western mind, which does not
merely and properly recognize the validity of both the active
and contemplative lives, but reverses their hierarchy (setting
Martha above Mary), to realise that alike in Christianity and
Hinduism, there is recognized a double norm, an ordinary and
an extraordinary norm. We have not only to live this life well,
but also to prepare for another. There are not only values,
but also an ultimate worth beyond all contraries.
We shall die; and it is the Christian (Thomist, etc) doctrine
that it is the intellectual virtues that will survive. In the
Hindu scheme oflife there are recognized four stations(<isra-
ma), those (1) of studentship, (2) marriage, procreation and
vocational occupation, (3) retirement, and (4) total renunciation
(sannyasa) of all rights and duties (which are handed over,
naturally and ritually, to ones dcscendcnts, in whom our
character is reborn and who take our place in the world of
rights and duties, of which the incumbency is thus hereditary).
There is also recognized the possibility of the special vocation
by which one may be imperiously summoned to a total
renunciation of status and obligations at any age; and however
strong the Hindu emphasis upon social rcsposibility may be,
the presence in the world of those who, at least in old age, have
laid down their burden, is a perpetual witness to the reality of
the worth that transcends all virtues and vices. A society that
made a final end oflife itself would be materialistic indeed; that
would be to substitute an ideal of mere prosperity and
progress for the kingdom of heaven [which on earth] can
only be realised . . . within you.
To abandon ones vocational activity is not essential to
perfection (the unified state). The ideal is to act without
acting; this is like an actor who plays his part perfectly, but is
not involved in it; and who is, therefore, the unmoved
spectator of his own fate, at the same time that this destiny is
enacted by his own temporary psycho-physical vehicle. It is in
these terms that an I ndian Utopia is conceived.
Y ou will find, I think, this philosophy of life explicitly
enough expounded in the Bhagavad Gita (esp III, 1535 and
XVIII, 45-49); and the extent to which this compendium of
Vedic tradition underlies and informs Hindu society could
hardly be exaggerated.
I trust you will find at least a partial answer in the above; or if
not, please write further.
Very sincerely,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England; see page 20.
Hinduism and Buddhism, New Y ork, 1943; also see Bibliography.
To MR LUDOVIC DE GAIGNERON
December 16, 1935
My dear Mr Gaigneron:
Let me add that a further perusal of your book leads me to
admire very much your most able dialectic.
On just one point, 1 feel that the argument is a little
precarious, viz, in conncction with the doctrine of lost
cultures. It seems to me very unsafe to assume that precisely all
the evidences of a mechanically superior civilisation have been
lost and only those of a mechanically inferior civilisation
preserved. It would be a strange chance that preserved only the
stone weapons of primitives (ie, early) man all over the
world and no where any trace of his more elaborate
mechanismsi f such there were. I think the point is much
rather that the lost cultures were superior intellectually, but not
materially. By way of illustration, the mode of thought of an
American Indian shaman is even now more abstract than that of
the civilised man, by far. When the Chinese speak of the pure
men of old, they rather assume that they had very f ew wants,
and used very little means, than the contrary. I f early man was
more angelic than ourselves, must he not, like the angels,
have had fewer ideas and used less means than men? The
magnitude of our means and multiplicity of our ideas are in fact
the measure of our decadence. The pure men of old were not
civilised within the profane meaning of the word.
Sincerely,
L udovic de Gaigneron, Paris, France, author of Vers la connaissance interdite,
Paris, 1935.
To GEORGE SARTON
March 25, 1939
Dear Dr Sarton:
Y ou probably know and must have reviewed F. M. Lund, Ad
Quadratum, London, 1921. It seems to me a quite remarkable
work. I f by any chance you have not dealt with it, it seems to
me it would be good to have an article on this and Ghykas Le
Nombre dOr (many editions, eg, Paris, 1931) together. Not of
course a job I could do, though there is much material in both
of deepest interest for me. As I have often said, pririiitive
man knew nothing of a possible divorce of function and
meaning: all his inventions were applied meaning.
Very sincerely,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Sir:
The effect of our civilization and of industrialism upon any
traditional society is to destroy the basis of hereditary vocation
on which such societies are based: and we may say that thus to
rob the man of his vocation, even though it be done in the name
of liberty, is to rob the man of his living, not only in an
economic sense, but in the sense that man does not live by
bread alone: since it is precisely in such societies that the
professions themselves and for the very reason that the
vocation is in every sense of the word natural, provide the solid
basis of initiatory teaching.
Sincerely,
The above handwritten letter was neither addressed nor dated.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
April 1, 1943
Sir:
As against Mr Couscns, I maintain that Pontifex I lls fine
saying, The first essential is for Teaching to become a
Vocation, which only they may enter who have heard the call,
should be engraved on every school and college protal, and that
only they may enter who have heard the call should be
understood to apply to pupils as well as teachers. Assuredly, in
this case there would be fewer teachers and fewer pupils. So
what? 1 take it wc are all agreed that a demand for quality
should take precedence of any demand for quantity. We are
suffering nowadays not from too little, but from too much
education, or what is so-called. The importance of even literacy
has been immensely overrated. Innumerable peoples have been
profoundly cultured who could not read or write: for example,
of the late Dali Mor of the Uses, Carmichacl writes that he
played with equal skill upon several instruments. He had a
marvelous ear for the old-world music and melodies, and a
wonderful memory for old songs and hymns, most of which
died with him when he died. The man was unlettered, and
knew Geolic only. What was true for the Gael was true no less
for the American Indian, the Indian peasant and a thousand
others before the withering touch of our civilisation fell upon
them like a blight.
Apart from an elite of teachcrs and pupils, the effects of a
modern education, school or college, are almost wholly
destructive of any existing culture, and what they put in its
place is something that moves on a much lower level of
reference. I have known more than one Professor who has told
me that it took him ten years to outgrow his Harvard education.
I f that can be said of one of the best existing colleges, what can
be said of the products of English and American systems of
Universal Compulsory Education? Speaking for what survi
ves of the traditional cultures of the East, I have said myself in
a kind of Open Letter that will appear in the March Asia, that
whatever you do to us in the future by way of wars of
agression or pacification, keep at least your college education
for home consumption. As you have so well said in the same
issue in which Mr Cousens letter is printed, how seldom
nations can be relied upon to keep the peace unless their internal
life fulfils for them their own ideas as to what it ought to be. Is
that what your education has done for the Gael, the Irish, the
American Indian and the South Sea Islander? Is that what it has
done for you?
Surely our crying need is for less and better rather than more
and (if possible) worse education? And that should apply to
every other aspect of life; the first essential is that occupations,
however practical, should not be jobs, but professions. The
kind of book-learning that can be handed out in large quantities
will not provide for that! That was the basis of a caste system in
which, as Hocart says, chaque metier est une sacerdoce. What has
our education got to offer to compare with that? We cannot
pretend to culture until by the phrase standard of living we
come to mean a qualitative standard. It is only where trades are
callings that, as Plato says, more will be done, and better done,
than in any other way.
I f that applies anywhere, it surely applies to education, by
which our very being can be either warped or erected. Literacy
is of supreme importance only for shopkeepers and chain-belt
workers, who must be able to keep accounts and able to read
the instructions that are put up on the factory notice board. For
the rest, it were far better not to be able to read at all than to read
what the great majority of Europeans and Americans read
today.* Modern education is designed to fit us to take our place
in the counting house and at the chain-belt; a real culture breeds
a race of men able to ask: What kind of work is worth doing?
AKC
* How much more excruciatingly pertinent is this observation in the
conditions prevailing over forty years later!
To DR ROBERT ULICH
August 24, 1942
Dear Dr Ulich:
I think one of the best points made in your book is the
statement that all good teaching consists in changing passivity
into activity. For is it not the whole nature of progress to
progress from potentiality to act? God is all in act. Moreover
it is consistent with the Platonic and Indian doctrine that all
learning is a recollection; a picture of a lesson based on this
assumption is given following [ie, in^or according to] Meno.
I often feel that one cannot teach any understanding directly,
but only break down misunderstanding: in other words, dialectical
procedure. The Buddhist texts often describe a fine sermon as
like bringing a lamp into a dark room. The destruction of
something enables us to see for ourselves what was already
there.
Very sincerely,
PS: I think you would enjoy P. K. Barlow, The Discipline of
Peace, Faber and Faber, 1942.
Dr Robert Ulich, professor of education at Harverd University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA, and author of numerous books on the history, theory
and practice of education.
To PROFESSOR LANGDON WARNER
April 13, 1932
My dear Langdon Warner:
Many thanks for your letter. I am sorry indeed nothing can
be done in the case of Aga Oglu, who would be such a great
addition to our forcesbut is useless to grieve over a thing
which cannot be amended, after one has done everything
possible.
Apropos of our conversation, I reflect that I cannot really
agree with the idea that it is good to say to students bring your
own standards. It is the beginning of wisdom to realise that all
standards are relative, and why not let them face this fact at
once? In my N Y lectures, beginning with a few words as to
the value of our discipline, I suggested that if this fact were
learnt from the course, it would be of more value to the student
than any of the facts of the art history that he might acquire
from it. I tell them that art is not a universal language; pure
aesthetic experience is immutable and universal, indeed
inscrutable, but no one is competent to enjoy aesthetic
experience until all his objections (based on his own standards,
for example) and curiosities have been allayed. So I set myself
to remove these barriers, thinking that it depends then entirely
on the students own nature, when he is in a position to possess
the art, or at the very least to take it for granted, whether or not
he can enjoy aesthetic experience. Otherwise, 1tell them, in
merely liking and disliking any work they are doing no more
than gaining one more new sensation; than which it would be
better not to go abroad, mais cultiver son jardin. All this may be
hard sledding for the average student, but the more you ask the
more you get, and I do not believe in compromise. I know you
will be shocked.
Very sincerely,
Langdon Warner, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
To STUART CHASE
3 February 1941
Dear Mr Chase:
I was much interested in your article in the February Readers
Digest, which I saw by chance. It affords another instance of the
rediscovery of a principle that has always been known
traditionally. Plato (Republic 395 B, 500 D) points out that the
practice of an art and the wage-earning capacity or business
instinct are two different things, so that a man does not earn
wages by his art as such, but accidentally. He says that more
things are produced, and better and more easily, when one man
performs one kind of work in accordance with his own nature,
opportunely and at leisure from other cares (ibidem 370 C, cf
374 B, C, 347 E, 406 C, etc); and this doing of ones own
work is his type of justice (ibidem 433 B, 443 C). St.
Thomas Aquinas says that the workman is inclined by justice
to do his work faithfully (Sum Theol I-II 57.3 ad 2) and that he
is only concerned with the good of the work to be done
(ididem 1.91'.3). I have myself pointed out in print, as did also
Eric Gill, that under normal (vocational) conditions the man at
work is doing what he likes best and would rather do than even
play. The fact that under a system of production for profit, in
which the workman is no longer a responsible maker but only a
tool himself, a system in which livelihood is earned not in the
course of following a vocation, but in a job to which one is
forced by need and to which one could never be callcd by
anyone but a manufacturer, the traditional axiom that
pleasure perfects the operation can no longer apply. I will not
lengthen out this letter by citing Oriental sources, but only say
that I have myself employed hereditary craftsmen in the East to
make a certain number of objects for me, being paid by the day
while the work was going on. These men were so much
interested in and fond of their work and appreciation of it that
they could not be dissuaded from working at it by candlelight
at night, although this obviously reduced the total of money
they would be able to earn from me. I may add that my own
work is also my vocation, and that hours of labor mean
nothing to me; I should be very angry i f asked to work only so
many hours per week. But this is the exception under modern
conditions, though it was once the rule. I believe it is only
when production is primarily for use and not primarily for
profit that on the one hand the workman is free and happy, and
on the other produces objects of such quality as can rightly be
desired by the consumer. It is only because industrialism
reverses these conditions, and not because machines of any kind
are bad in themselves, that people have become accustomed to
expect art only in museums, and nothing but utility
elsewhere.*
Very sincerely,
Stuart Chase graduated from Harvard in 1910 and worked as an accountant
at the Federal Trade Commission before becoming a freelance writer. The
article in question was What Makes the Worker Like to Work?, Readers
Digest, February 1941. Mr Chase was later associated with the art and
archeology department at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire,
USA.
* Machines must be distinguished from tools. The latter are unquestionably
legitimate, but i f the former arc not bad in themselves it must nevertheless
be recognized that from a traditional perspective something like an
occasion of sin indubitably attaches to them
To STUART CHASE
February 11, 1941
Dear Mr Chase:
Thanks for your letter. The problem you raise seems to me
to be one of values, and closely bound up with the alternatives,
production for use or production for profit. It is significant that
manufacture has come to mean not the actual maker of
anything, but essentially a big salesman. I am not going to deny
the benefits of quantity production, but to make some
reservations.
I think it is our great mistake to tend to identify civilisation
and standards of living with quantity of wants and their
satisfaction. Vast quantities of things arc now made, which are
just what Plato would have described as not such as free men
really need. Some of these things have only come to seem to
be necessities because of the excessive degree of mens
separation from the soil on which he ultimately depends.
Others which provide us with amusement and distraction in
many cases seem to be necessities only for the very reason that
we are not deriving adequate pleasure (the traditional pleasure
that perfects the operation) from our work. Others are made
only to sell. And in any case there is some natural antithesis
between quantity and quality.
Now the events of the last thirty years have made us a little
less confident that our progress has been altogether in the
right direction; wc are not altogether unwilling to make
revaluations. The same problem comes up in our educational
programmes. I f we are to have any standards by which to judge
means to living, must wc not somehow once more come to kind of
agreement about the purpose of life and hence what we ought
to mean by standard of living, or in traditional terms, the
good life?
Means arc not and must not be confused with ends: they arc
means to ends. In any case, it seems obvious that the kind of
men we produce is more important than the quantity of things
they can possess*; and that the kind of men wc produce is very
closely bound up with the kind of things they make, and the
quality of these things themselves, which they use and by
which they cannot but be influenced.
The basic requirement, is, then, an establishment of and
some agreement about real values. The result would be, not
necessarily an abolition of all quantity production, but certainly
a reduction in the amount of it. This alone would somewhat
simplify the problem, which turns fundamentally upon the
question, what are the things that ought to be made or what are
the things that free men ought to possess? (I am not, of course,
referring to a merely political freedom, which as we know does
not secure to the worker the opportunity to be happy in his
work; it has in fact often been the case, historically, that slaves
have been able to be happy at their work in a way that our
politically free wage-slaves cannot be). I am far from
denying that some things can be beautifully made by the use of
machines, when these are essentially tools in the hands of
intelligent and responsible workmen; but would say that it
seems to me that it is not proper for free men (in the full sense
of the words) either to make or to use things which are not both
beautiful and adapted to good use, pulcher et aptus; that only
those things that are both useful are really (ie, formally right)
as Plato says Wholesome; and that it is from this point of
view, and considering men first and things second, that we
have to approach this problem.
I am sending you a recent pamphlet. I f you are ever in
Boston, perhaps you will find time to drop in at the Museum
where I am daily except on Saturdays.
Very sincerely,
Stuart Chase, as above.
*I n the modem industrialized world, West or East, no one remembers or
wishes to remember that . . .a mans life does not consist in the abundance
of the things which he possesses (Lk xii, 15). Indeed, in the fatness of these
pursey times . . . , avarice becomes the counterfeit of a social virtue.
The wording in the last sentence in the penultimate paragraph may seem
confusing, but it has been checked against the original.
To ARTEMUS PACKARD
May 26, 1941
Dear Professor Packard:
First of all, I want to say how completely I agree about the
genius myth. Satan was the first to think of himself as a
genius. We all have a genius (immanent daimon), which we
(so-and-so) should obey, but as so-and-so cannot be. To
become it is theosis, but then we are no longer ourselves, but
nameless.
Probably we could reach some approximation to agreement
on other problems. I am wholly anti-totalitarian. But I could
hardly think of democracy, however high its present value, as
an ultimate ideal, as I crave to be governed by my superiors, not
by my equals. I do not welcome increased leisure (for myself or
for anyone else). By (political) liberty, I understand freedom to
heautou prattein. When at work wc should be doing what we
most delight in. Culture through work (vocation) or not at all, if
we mean the real thing!
The man with the hoe is only disgusting because the farmer,
too, has become a proletarian. I do not quite agree that Plato is
inapplicable (I am talking about Plato because that is where the
discussion startedactually my indoctrination with the Philoso-
phia Perennis is primarily Oriental, secondarily Mediaeval, and
thirdly classic) now.
I still think more will be done and better done, and we shall
have better men, when each man follows a vocation. 1cannot
regard work on a chain- belt as a vocation but rather as what is
unbecoming for a free man. So long as we demand such a high
material standard of living as wc do, it seems to me some men
must be warped by their menial tasks, i f it is to be provided.
So it seems all important to decide what is worth making, and
whether we want more things, more than we want better men
(men for whom life is intelligible). I hope you may be in
Boston some time.
Very sincerely,
Professor Artemas Packard is not identified, though apparently he was
connected with Dartmouth College, Hanover, N"w Hampshire, USA.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
September 5, 1946
Sir:
Captain Ludovici and others have referred to the decline in
the birthrate as representing a loss of the sense of responsibility
to society. May it not be that this loss of the sense of
responsibility is bound up with and cannot be considered apart
from other and even more fundamental impoverishments? I
mean, in particular, that the decline in the birthrate may be
largely a function or symptom of the loss of the sense of
vocation, metier, ministerium.
For Plato and the Vedic tradition, all men are born in
debtto their ancestors, to whom they owe the existing
amenities of the environment into which they arc born; and the
main reason for having children is that they may in their turn
assume the specific functions that were fulfilled by their
fathers before them. The vocation is an incumbency; and it is
proverbial that everyone is in love with his own family trade
(tread, walk, way). But who now takes, or can take this kind of
pride in his own work, or desires above all things to be what
his father was? For the vast majority of men are no longer
responsible artists, having a calling, but only cam their living
by labouring at joys to which no one but the industrial system,
or more abstractly, economic determination, has summoned
them? I f ever once again the concept of vocational responsibility
can be restoredi f ever the miners union, for example, comes
to regard it as their first responsibility to keep home fires
burningthen, when the stability of society itself is thus
ensured, responsibility will also be felt again, to procreate in
that others may carry on our tasks.
AKC
To THE EDITOR OF COMMON SENSE
August 1943
Sir:
William J ordy, discussing prc-fabricated houses, says in your
J uly issue, Whether the results be socially or esthetically
desirable is another question, but at least we are abandoning
nineteenth century handicraft methods for more efficient and
sensible modes of production. I would ask, how can methods
be described as efficient if the social desirability of the result is
uncertain, and how as sensible, if we are doubtful about the
esthetic value of the results? The philosopher, being the
practical man par excellence, has always assumed that the only
reason for making things is for mans good use; but for the
industrialist, who for the present has the consumer by the
throat, the primary reason for making things is the profit that
can be made by selling them. He is perfectly willing to go
ahead, however doubtful the social and esthetic, ie, human
value of the product may be, i f only he is persuaded that people
can be made to want the product; and he has many ways of
making people want what he can supply. The human value of
the product may be more doubtful; but what does that matter if
at least old fashioned procedures can be abandoned? The
advertiser knows very well that a people believing blindly in
progress can always and easily be convinced that any change
would be for the better.
What all this means, of course, is that the consumers good is
another question. Nothing matters but the interests of the
corporations and huge glass and steel firms who arc eager
to sell their products, in this case, pre-fabricated houses. This
obvious consideration should have been more clearly stated,
and not merely hinted at.
AKC
PS: Xenephon, Memorabilia II I .8.8: that the same house is both
beautiful and useful, was a lesson in the art of building houses
as they ought to be. Common Sense, published for a time at
Union, New J ersey, bore the subtitle: the Nations Anti-
Communist Newspaper.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
Undated
Sir:
Mr Reckitts discussion of the I vory Shelter in your issue
of Nov 2 raises what can only be a problem in a functionally
unorganized and atomic society, in which there are no longer
professions or vocations, no longer metiers, but only jobs and
occupations, and where, therefore, the artist can be regarded
as a special kind of man. In a traditional social order, every man
who makes or orders anything is an artist: the forging of
weapons is an art, war is an art, and painting and sculpture are
no more arts than either of these. There arises then no question
between man and artist as to who shall fight; the question arises
only as between different kinds of artist, all of which kinds may
be equally essential to good use and, therefore, to the good
life that we have in view when we think of civilisation as a
good. In an [traditionally] organized society it is everymans
first duty to practice his own vocation; which, in as much as
vocation corresponds to nature, is also his best means of
working out his own salvation; mans first duty socially thus
coinciding with his first duty from the religious point of view.
It is then, the duty only of the professional soldier, or in
other words of the members of the ruling (kshatrya, ritterlich)
class, to fight; it is neither for the priest, the trader, nor for the
artist (the maker of anything by art) to fight. I f at the
present day it iseven for women and childrento fight
(women over 50 have been denied U.S. citizenship because
they would not promise to bear arms in defense of their
country) this can only mean that the community is in extremis,
where mere existence and bread alone are at stake. The fact is
that those who aspire to empire (in the modern connotation
of the term) cannot also afford a culture, or even an agriculture:
we do not sufficiently realise that the civilisation that men are
supposed to be fighting for is already a museum piece. I f at the
present day we are not shocked by this last consequence of
individualism and laissez faire, a consequence that violates the
nature of every man who is not a soldier born and bred, it is
because we are inured to membership in industrial societies that
are not organic structures but atomic aggregates of servile units
that can be put to any task that may be required of them by a
deified nation: the individual, who was not free before the
war, but already part of a system, is not now free to stand
aloof from it.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
13 March, 1941
Sir:
Mr Herbert Read refuses to succeed as an artist at the
expense of his morality (J an 16, 1941, p 147). Bravo! This was
the basis of Platos famous censorship; and as Cicero said,
cum artifex, turn vir. I should have thought that it had been
demonstrated once for all, by Plato (not to mention other
traditional forms of the philosophia perennis), that i f we are to
have things fit for free men made by art (and certainly many
things now made for sale are unfit for the use of free men), they
must be both correct, true, or beautiful, and also
useful or convenient, and are only then wholesome. It
was said by William Morris, too, that we ought not to possess
anything not both beautiful and useful; and in fact all else is
either brutality or luxury. The artist is the judge of the
works truth, perfection or beauty, and being only concerned
with the good of the work itself, will not normally (as the
manufacturer or salesman may) offer the consumer anything
but a true work of art. The consumer, on the other hand,
requires the work for use, and is the judge of its value for good
use. Are we not all consumers, and if so why shrink from
putting the artist in his own place and from judging the work
by its value? By employing an artist we take it for granted that
the work will be pulcher, and must decide for ourselves whether
or not it is et aptus.
AKC
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Dr Ncibuhr is mistaken when he takes it for granted that
caste is a color-discrimination analogous to the color-prejudices
with which we are familiar in America. The late A. M. Hocart,
a scholar and anthropologist of worldwide experience (very
necessary in this case, just because caste is not an exclusively
Indian phenomenon), devotes twelve pages (44-58) of his book,
Les Castes to a destructive criticism of the theory that
aristocracies are the end products of conquests, and that the
Indian word for color (varna) can be adduced in support of
this concept. The Indian word that most nearly corresponds to
the Portuguese casta is jati, birth or lineage. As Mr Hocart
points out, the four castes are connected with the four quarters
(and four ages), of which the colours arc red, white, yellow
and black; and as he says, on the conquest theory, we should
have to presume successive invasions by peoples of these four
colors, and that the last comers always became the Brahmans.
It is not quite so easy as all that for a conquering race to become
the priests of the conquered. We must always remember that in
ancient India, where the now so much abused word Aryan
originated, the distinction of Aryan from non-Aryan was a
cultural and not a racial discrimination. We can speak of an
Aryan language, but not of an Aryan people. The distinction
of higher from lower castes in India is not racial, but more of
character (in the theological sense of the word).
Although, on the average, high castes arc fairer than low
castes, there are very dark Brahmans and very fair Sudras; in
Kashmir, some of the lowest castes are quite blonde. I have
known Europeans who were liked in spite of what was called
their unfortunate off-colour. As a matter of taste, the
preferred colour is golden. And there cannot be said to be a
prejudice against a dark colour where this is the colour of one of
the chief forms of deity, Vishnu, and of his descendents Rama
and Krishna.
I think it is because the Negro problem that he knows is
actually one of race and colour, that Dr Ncibuhr is too much
inclined to confuse social with racial differences. As Mr Fisher
has already pointed out, the distinction of Muhammadans*
from Hindus is hardly at all a matter of ' race; Indian
Muhammadans are almost wholly of Indian blood and that,
indeed, is one of the principal reasons why such a fusion of the
two cultures as actually took place was possible; the other
being, in the words of the Mughal Emperor J ahangir, that
their Vedanta is the same as our Tassawwuj (Sufism).
A further point: what does Dr Neibuhr mean by snobbish
ness? and who are his snobs? A snob is a person who does
not belong to the upper classes; one obviously without rank or
gentility. . .one who vulgarly affects the manners or stations of
those of superior rank, esp by a display of wealth (Webster). It
is then with the lower castes that he seems to be finding fault.
The corresponding vice in an upper class would be arro
gance. Englishmen in India arc often arrogant, and physical
or moral half-castes sometimes snobbish, but one could
hardly pretend that either of these vices are characteristic of the
Indian peoples themselves.
And finally with respect to the distinction of vocational from
plutocratic societies, I should like to quote from a Polish writer:
It matters not whether the present-day factory worker is, as
regards the intensity and duration of his exertion, in a better
or worse condition than the savage hunter or the artisan of
the Middle Ages. The point that does matter is that his mind
has no share in determining the aims of his work and that his
body, as an instrument of independent creative power, has
lost most of its significance. Hence his mind, divorced from
creative activity, turns in the main to the problem of
satisfying the needs of his primitive animal appetites; while
his body having lost, in his own eyes, well nigh all its
importance as an instrument of skilled production, interests
him almost exclusively as a source of pleasure and discom
fort (F Snaniecki, cited in A. J . Krzesinski, Is Modern Culture
Doomed?). That is what the Indian holds against the modern
plutocracies and why he docs not want to imitate them,
except to the extent that he may be forced to do so in
self-defence.
AKC
* Were Dr Coomaraswamy writing today, almost certainly he would use
the word Muslim (or one of the spelling variants) rather than Muhamma
dan. The latter, an adjectival form of the name of the Prophet of Islam, was
adopted by Westerners on analogy with Christian; but the role of the two
Messengers differs sufficiently to render the supposed analogy null and void,
and this has become generally accepted in the years since Dr Coomaras-
wamys death. The religion is Islam, which in Arabic means submission, ie,
to Allah; and one who submits is a Muslim.
The recipient of this letter is not identified.
Louis Fisher, writer and prominent western follower of Mahatma Gandhi.
A. J . Krzesinski, Is Modem Culture Doomed?, New Y ork, 1942.
Dr Rcinhold Neibur was a prominent neo-orthodox protestant theologian.
To THE NATION, NEW YORK
J anuary 30, 1943
Dear Sirs;
Dr Neibuhr, in his review of Shridharnis Warning to the West
in The Nation of J anuary 2, speaks of the Indian caste system as
the most rigid form of class snobbishness in history. One
could not have a better illustration of the fallacy of claiming
that the form of ones own government is best, not only for
himself, but also for the rest of mankind (Franz Boas, cited in
the same issue). In the first place, it may be observed that no
snobbishness can exist where there is no social ambition:
Indians do not, like Americans, have to keep up with the
J oneses. And let me add that the form of his social order is the
last thing that could occur to an Indian to apologize for, when
he compares it with the informality of Western proletarian
industrialisms. I say I ndustrialisms rather than democra
cies because in these so-called self-governing societies the
Indian [can see] nothing that can be compared with the really
democratic character of the internal self-government of his own
castes or guilds and his own village communities.
It has been very truly pointed out by A. M. Hocart, author
of Les Castes (Paris, 1938), probably the best book in the subject
available that hereditary service is quite incompatible with our
industrialism, and that is why it is always painted in such dark
colors. Mr Hocart also points out that we must not be
frightened by the connotations of the European words that are
used to translate Indian terms. The caste system, he says, is not
one of oppression, but, on the contrary, may be much less
oppressive than our industrial system.The members of the
most menial castes are chargcd with certain functions; but there
is no one who can compel them to perform them, otherwise
than by the employment of a proper etiquette, addressing them
with requests arc treating them with respect.
Traditional societies of the Indian type are based on vocation.
The vocation is sacrcd, and ones descendents in due course
take ones place in the framework of socicty for the fulfilment
of what is strictly speaking a ministration (it was cxactly for
the same reason that Plato held that we owe it to society to
beget successors). I f the Indian has no children, this can be
remedied by adoption; but if ones children adopt another
profession than their fathers, that is the end of the family as
such; its honour is no more, and that holds as much for the
highest as for the lowest.
AKC
This letter ends rather abruptly, but it is all that is available to the editors and
we believe it makes the essential point clearly enough.
To DONA LUISA COOMARASWAMY
August 11, 1935
Darling:
. . . I did receive, value and answer your letter about the
Vidyapati experience: 1remarked on your having been able to
retain it after elimination of the personal element. I do not
know about kudra as Krishna's ego. But I ndras position in R V
alreadynot all the time, but in many placesrepresents the
revolt of the temporal power (ksatra) against the spiritual power
(brahma), although the legitimacy of ksatra depends entirely on
brahma consecration (rajasiiya). The dual I ndragni gives you the
2 operating in onethe primordial condition: Indra, to whom
Agni entrusts the vajra, the true relationship when the functions
are separated. When Indra asserts his independence, being
carricd away by pride (abhimana) the real deviation begins.
Historically, this is the Ksatra asserting itself, retaining a
Luciferian grandeur, but the movement ultimately becomes
Satanic. Historically, the ksatra revolt is indicated in the
Buddhist period and results in heterodoxy. What has taken
place in the West (and is taking place in the East also) is just the
inevitable subsequent revolt of the economic (vaisya) power
against the ksatra, and finally the revolt of the sudras, resulting
no longer even heterodoxy, but a completely antitraditional
attitude and disorder. It is the last stage of the Kali Yuga. These
stages move with accelerated rapidity towards the close. They
should be followed by a new heaven and a new earth, ie, a
restoration of spirituality. The transition is always dark and
catastrophic. The present crisis is more acute and world wide
than any we know in history: what is to follow should be
therefore a very great revolution in character, a real Menschen-
erneurung. I have no doubt that the identification of Indra with
Lucifcr-Satan is sound. Satan in this sense is the Prince of the
Worldnot to be confused with the Power of Darkness that is
the ab intra (guhya) aspect of the Light. The back of God is
indeed hell for those who fallas Satan falls, but as you
will see, it is not really Satans home, but a condition that he falls
into; Satans home is in heaven, as Lucifer, as you see in the
identifications of Indra with the Sun and his frequent control of
the Solar Wheel. . . .
To return to the futility of certain onesit is a part of the
general delusion, the attempt to compromise; one must be
rigidly orthodox or else impure. My objection to most
Christians is not bigotry but that they compromise with
modernism. I think consistently highly of Guenon. Speaking of
the desirability of a return (for Europe) to Christianity, he
remarks that i f this could be, the modern world would
automatically disappear. Also very good, that while from the
eternal point of view it is inevitable that all possibilities, even
evil ones, should be worked out, in time, eg, in and especially
as now at the end of the Kali Yuga, the text applies It must be
that offenses will come, but woe unto them through whom
they come. . . .
The one thing lacking in the organisation of life is rta. What
rta means is the metaphysical pattern, the divine art. Some day I
shall try to show how the whole domestic and marital pattern
in India follows a purely metaphysical plan, as it was in the
beginning (agre). Especially as regards pardah*, exogamy, etc.
The husband is always Aryan, the mother non-Aryan, respec
tively Deva and Asura, powers of Light and Darkness; in other
words, the maternal possibility, the power that enables things
to be (as distinguished from the power that makes them be) is
always a priori in the darkness, and of the darkness, and has
never seen the Sun nor felt the wind, in other words, is behind
the curtain (of the sky), that is to say Pardah.
Therefore Pardah, as that reflection of the divine pattern, may
be reflected on earth. It is as usual nothing but man that makes
people rebel at such things, just I.
As regards the lack of profound persons in India also: in any
case there is still there a solid mass of conservative peasants
whose mentality is almost unspoiled, and this is a great reserve
force. Also there are more of the orthodox than one
seesthe better they are, the less visible. I think in time you
will recognize more such people. Anyhow, it is useless to spend
time considering the defects of the educated, they are lost,
and thats that; only the positive work is really worth while.
AKC
* More commonly purdah, though the Oxford English Dictionary gives pardah
as an alternative form.
Dona Lusia Coomaraswamy, A K Cs wife, who was studying in India at
this time. This letter is a combination of two from which personal matter has
been removed.
Purdah or pardah simply means veil or curtain in Persian, Hindi and Urdu; it
refers to the custom among Muslims and higher caste Hindus of veiling
women and setting aside areas or apartments for them. It is also reflected
among more traditionally minded women of the Subcontinent in the practice
of drawing a fold of the sari or dhupatta over the Face in the presence of
strange men. For an excellent Western case study of the sociological
theory of caste deterioration along the lines described in this letter, the reader
is referred to Siena, City of the Virgin, by Titus Burckhardt, Oxford
University Press, 1960.
To JOHN J. HONIGMANN
October 17, 1946
Dear Mr Honigmann:
I greatly appreciate your noticc of my Religious Basis . . . in
Psychiatry. I should like to say, however, that you did not quite
get the concept of freedom that I tried to explain. I would
admit that a man feels free to the extent that he is in harmony
with the culture in which he participates, and that the elite are
the most responsible bearers of the accepted values. But this is
only a relative freedom, from which the really freeman only
escapes when he adopts the extraordinary means.
In any case, it is the members of the elite who have the
least freedom to do what they like, and that is why I said
Americans would choose (if a caste system were imposed upon
them) to be Sudras or outcastes.
As to another point: there is no question of wanting to
convert the West to Indian ways of thinking as such; I have
often emphasized that. The question is, what are the basic
premises of the Western world, that you speak of? I am not
sure that these are the ideas of free enterprise, etc, etc, that
happen to be fashionable at the moment. I am not sure that
other ideas such as that of just price are not really more basic
even to Western society; and all I would hope for is a return to
what I think of as the really basic premises of Western
culture, most of which seem to be ignored at the present day.
To that I would add that what I think of as the basic premises of
the West are not so far from those of the East; hence there could
be a rapproachment without anything in the nature of a
conversion imposed.
Very sincerely,
J ohn J . Honigmann had reviewed AK Cs The Religious Basis of the Forms of
Indian Society (published as a pamphlet by Orientalia, New Y ork, 1946) in
Psychiatry, I X, 1946, p 285, from which the quotation below is taken:
What else distinguishes the essay is the fact that it represents a highly
sophisticated Indian interpreting the configurations of his own society, a
notable experience for anthropologists who are accustomed to working
with non-literate groups and who have not yet shown much confidence
in analyzing the premises by which their own culture is shaped. . . . I f we
understand Coomaraswamy correctly, freedom in his philosophy comes
when a person is freed of responsibility and relieved by an elite of the
necessity of making moral choices. . . .
To A. M. HOCART
Undated
Dear Mr. Hocart:
Very many thanks for your paper on Caste, with very much
of which I am in agreement. One of the best short discussions
of caste I know is the short article by Mukhopadhyaya in the
Aryan Path, J une 1933. It might be pointed out that all castes are
united in divinis, eg, we may say that as Tvastr-Visvakarma (=
Christian Divine Architect whose procession is per artem), the
deity is Sudra, as Agni is Brahmana, as Indra is Ksatriya, etc.
Very sincerely,
A. M. Hocart, author of Les Castes, Paris, 1938.
I ncomplete manuscript letter, unsigned.
To PROFESSOR WESTON LA BARRE
October 30, 1945
Dear Professor La Barre:
While I agree with many points made in your August
Psychiatry article (notably the last sentence of the second
paragraph in which respect, I think, Pearl Buck often offends) I
do not think the first sentence of your note 63* can be
substantiated; cf, for example Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.14:
This is what makes the Regnum (ruling caste) the Regnum, viz,
J ustice (dharma . . ., Chinese /); wherefore there is nothing that
surpasses J ustice, and so a weak man as regards one stronger
than himself puts his trust in J ustice, just as one might in the
K ing. In the Oriental concept of monarchy the king, of
course, is expected to be the embodiment ofjustice; hence, as in
this next text, it is taken for granted that to appeal to J ustice is
the same thing as the appeal to Caesar. Moreover, as the
Arthasastra says, the whole of the science of government
depends upon a victory over the powers of perception and
action (cf my Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power . . .,
1942, p 36).
In view of the fact that you are intending to analyse Indian
character in a future article, I am rather disturbed by your notes
26 and 29, which seem to show no knowledge of I ndian
theology or sociology other than might be expected from the
most prejudiced missionaries. In particular, J uggernath, ie,
Jagannath, Lord of the World, is not a mother, but one of
the names of Vishnu, as Solar Rex Mundi\ to whom no human
or other bloody sacrifices are ever made. Again, what you call
punishment by caste corresponds to our legal disbarment or
withdrawal of license to practice in the case of lawyers or
doctors who offend professional ethics. I do venture to hope
that before committing yourself on the subject of caste you will
at least have read what has been said on the subject by such men
as Sir George Birdwood (in Industrial Arts in India, and Sva) and
A. M. Hocart (Les Castes)', as the latter remarks, pp 70, 237,
238:
Nous devons ne pas etre egares par les equivalents europeen
pour des mots indiens. . . . nous savons que lhistoire de ce
systemc ncst pas l histoirc dune oppression absolue, mais
quau contraire il peut etre beaucoup moins oppressif que
notre systeme industriel. . . . Le service hereditaire est tout a
fait incompatible avec l industrialisme actuel et cest pour-
quoi il est peint sous des coleurs aussi sombre.
It is, in fact, precisely from the axiology underlying caste
systems, ie, vocationally integrated social orders, that one can
best criticize the immorality of industrial exploitation. I venture
to hope that you will also consult a few such works as Sister
Niveditas Web of Indian Life and Kali the Mother; Bhagavan
Das Science of Social Organization; The Cultural Heritage of India;
and the late Professor Zimmers forthcoming book, before
going on to analyse a character with which you seem to be so
little acquainted. I am sure you will pardon me for speaking so
frankly on a matter of such importance.
Very sincerely,
PS: On the subject of likeness and difference (East and West)
you might care to look at my chapter in The Asian Legacy (New
Y ork, 1945); and perhaps also my Hinduism and Buddhism (New
Y ork, 1943).
* I t seems that Dr Coomaraswamy must have confused the numbering of
the La Barre footnote with one of the notes in an article of his own which
appeared in the same issue o f Psychiatry (August 1945). The La Barre article,
entitled Some Observations on Character Structure in the Orient: the
J apanese, did not have so many footnotes, while the Coomaraswamy article
did. The latter, incidentally, entitled Spiritual Paternity and the Puppet
Complex, is quite an important study which retains even today all the
extraordinary significance for anthropology that it had when originally
published more than forty years ago. It has been republished a number of
times (see Bibliography).
Professor Weston La Barre, American anthropologist and writer on these
and related subjects.
Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government,
American Oriental Scries, American Oriental Society, 1942.
Sir George Birdwood, The Industrial Arts of India, and Sva.
Sister Nivedita (Margaret E. Noble), The Web of Indian Life and Kali the
Mother. The Cultural Heritage of India, a very rich compendium of articles
on all facets of I ndology, in four volumes, issued by the Ramakrishna
Mission, Calcutta.
A. M. Hocart, Les Castes, Paris, 1938.
Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization,
Princeton, 1946.
To PAUL HANLEY FURFEY, SJ
August 2, 1935
Dear Professor Furfey:
I found your Forward to Sociology and read it with pleasure
and interest. It is about time to realise that science was made for
man, not man for science. I look forward to anything further
you may find in St Thomas on intuitive knowledge. However,
I think it is notat least generally speakingsufficient to rely
on such intuition as one may oneself be capable of, merely, but
that we have also the guidance of RevelationI refer of course
to universal revelation and not exclusively to its formulation in
any one religion. Society can only be, let us say, a success
insofar as it conforms to the pattern in principio\ and this
demands at least a knowledge of the doctrine of hierarchy. And
how can one properly comprehend the true relation of Church
and State, Spiritual and temporal power, without a realisation
that these are again in principio functions of one perfect
consciousness, the eternal Avatar being both Priest and King
(which is also Thomist doctrine).
Very sincerely,
Paul Hanley Furfey, SJ , professor of sociology at Catholic University of
America, Washington, DC, USA.
To PAUL HANLEY FURFEY, SJ
August 4, 1935
Dear Professor Furfey:
I should like to add to my last note that while I have much
aggrcment with your sociology article, I feel you do not go far
enough. The proper ordering of society demands more than
purely human effort, and must be based on transcendental
truths. We have discussed the possibility of arriving at
something of this sort by inspiration, but while the possibility
of inspiration undoubtedly exists, is this not really the prophetic
power and more than we can look for from the fallible and
profane sociologist of today? It is surely the business of the
spiritual power to lay down the order of society, as it is of the tem
poral (governmental) to organize and protect the said order.
The spiritual power has two resources here (over and above the
matter of guessing right to which you refer, and as to which
in this sense I am a little suspicious): these resources are (1) the
infallibility of the Pope, and (2) transmitted doctrine, or
Revelation. For example, the Church must surely condemn the
capitalistic form, since it condemns usury. I do not indeed see
how any social order can approximate to perfection, once the
temporal power has revolted against the spiritual power.
Moreover, once this has taken place, the next and inevitable
step is a revolt of the economic power against the temporal or
executive power properly so called, and finally a revolt of the
physically laboring power, of the proletariat, against the
economic power, resulting in an equalitarianism entirely
incompatible with the doctrine as to hierarchy (if there is
hierarchy in Heaven, then to the extent that a K ingdom of God
can be realised on earth, there must be hierarchy here also). In
sum, I do not see any real value in a sociology which leaves out
principles and is based only on facts or experiment. Or in other
words, if we leave out God, what can we expcct? No doubt
you are in a difficult positionnevertheless, it is the duty of the
Church to be uncompromising. I agree with your remarks
about selfishnessbut it is not enough for the sociologist to be
good, he must also be wise (gentle as the dove and cunning, in the
etymological sense, as the serpent). What becomes of the
spiritual power, i f she cannot or does not speak with authority,
but takes part in discussion with profane teachers as i f on equal
terms? It is not for the Church to argue, but to tell.
Very sincerely,
Paul Hanley Furfey, SJ , as above.
Note that this remarkably perspicacious letter was written more than fifty
years ago!
To PAUL HANELY FURFEY, SJ
November 16, 1935
Dear Dr Furfey:
I wonder i f perhaps we might write a joint article on
spiritual authority: it could be in two parts, 1) Christian and
2) Hindu, or possibly in some way fused. Y our part starting
with the idea of a true sociology as as in Heaven so on Earth,
and the notion of Eternal Law; mine very similar, dealing with
social order as regular or irregular (just as an individual
mans life may be) using Indian material. Only yesterday I was
writing a note on the Indian custom of releasing prisoners and
remitting debts on the occasion of the birth of a royal heir,
which directly imitates what was done in the beginning when
the birth of Gods son and heir freed those that sat in darkness.
The spiritual sociology is the doctrine of a society that should
be exemplary in the technical sense.
Very sincerely,
Paul Hanley Furfey, SJ , as above.
To PAUL HANELY FURFEY, SJ
August 29, (year unavailable)
Dear Dr Furfey:
Mees book may be useful, but I have not seen it myself. Also
Bhagavan Das, The Laws of Manu in the Light of Theosophy
(Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, 1910) gives a good
account (discounting the specifically theosophical element).
Also recommended, Sister Nivedita, The Web of Indian Life,
Longmans (she was a pupil of Patrick Geddes).
Plato, Laws IV, 709: give me a tyrant governed city to form
our community from, let the tyrant be young, docile, brave,
temperate, and so far fortunate as to have at his side a true
thinker and law giver, shows the proper relation of the
temporal and spiritual power and corresponds to the Indian
scheme in which the king should be Ksatriya, his minister a
Brahman. (Ksatriya is the Kingly caste, Brahman the priestly;
ksatra the temporal, brahma the spiritual poweroriginally
united in the pricst-king as also in the Messiah.
Sincerely,
Paul Hanley Furfey, S. J ., as above.
To THE NATION
May 29, 1945
Dear Sirs:
In your May 26 issue, p 604, Mr Hook attributes to Plato the
doctrine that expert knowledge alone gives the right to rule.
This is misleading, sincc what Plato had in mind was
something very different from what we mean when we speak
of government by experts. His doctrine is that only wisdom
and the love of wisdom qualify for rule, and at the same time
impose upon those who are thus qualified a duty to participate
in public life, for which they will have*no natural taste. In the
Laws, Book III, he defines as ignorant those who are
unamenable to reason and are ruled by their likes and dislikes;
and they are ignorant, even though they be expert
calculators, and trained in all manner of accomplishments; it is
to the wise who live reasonably and harmoniously, that the
government should be entrusted, even if they arc illiterate and
unlearned workmen. His distinction of the ignorant from the
expert is as between those who hate and those who love what
they judge to be good and fair. Protagoras speaks similarly,
322-3.
In the same issue, p 603, Miss Marshall quotes with approval
Dr Nomad on the camel and the eye of needle. One would like
to know in what authoritative version of the Greek Gospels the
word was kamilos: not only is it kamelos in the Oxford edition of
the text that was followed by the Revisers of the Authorized
Version, and in the Oxford text of the Four Gospels published
in 1932, but also in the J ames Strong Exhaustive Concordance.
J alalud din Rumi, who both knew camels and was familiar also
with the traditional meaning of threading the eye of the
needle, writes: The eye of the needle is not suitable for the
camel (Mathnawi, 1.83). The camel has been, in fact, a
recognized symbol of the carnal as distinguished from the
spiritual self; and wc have the related figure in Matthew, of
swallowing a camel. While it is true that rope would also
have made good (and traditional) sense, it appears from Liddell
and Scott (who can cite only two references to the word
kamilos, neither of them Biblical) that rope has been thought
by some a more likely figure than a camel, and it seems to me
that Mr Nomad, too, is only voicing an opinion, and that he
has no right to laugh at the translators, who were not men of
the sort'that make boners.
AKC
To SIDNEY HOOK
Undated
Dear Professor Hook:
I send you the copy of a letter [above] sent to the Nation
which I daresay they may not find room for. However, I am
sure you will admit the justice of my criticism.
Very sincerely,
Sidney Hook, professor of philosophy, New Y ork University, New Y ork,
N Y , USA.
To SIDNEY HOOK
J une 6, 1945
Dear Professor Hook:
Many thanks for your letter. We clearly disagree. However, I
would say that the whole matter is for Plato not so much a
matter of right to rule as of duty. To philosophers generally,
governmental activity is distasteful, and should be exercised
precisely by those who are not interested in power. Govern
ment, as distinguished from tyranny, is a matter of J ustice, or
Proportionate Equality. In Protagoras, 322-3, it is pointed out
that while the special knowledges and vocations pertain to the
relatively few specialists in their fields, the sense ofjustice, etc,
is not peculiar to the few, but common to all regardless of their
vocation, and therefore that all may be consulted in civic
matters. All, that is, who arent ignorant in the sense of the
Laws passage to which I previously referred. I think these
passages are absolutely relevant to the present discussion.
Philo follows Plato in saying that philosophers should be
kings, or kings philosophers. Philo, of course, maintains that
democfacy, as distinguished from mob rule, is the best
constitution. But neither Plato nor Philo is thinking of
philosophy as a speciality in our academic sense, but of
something that is quite as much a way of life as a way of
knowing. In most traditional societies philosophy, in their
sense, is actually widely distributed and common to all classes.
On the other hand, our form of government here is not in fact a
democracy at all in Philos sense, but represents a balance of
power reached as between competing interests; and so
approaches the classical definition of tyranny, viz, government
by a ruler in his own interest. To be disinterested is the primary
qualification. As the I ndian books on government maintain,
The whole of this science has to do with the victory over the
powers of sensation and action, ie, with self-control as the
primary condition of authority.
Y ours very sincerely,
Sidney Hook, as above.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
March 13, 1941
Sir:
Y ou gave currency (J an 23, p 154) to Mr Chamberlains
recent statement in Harpers that personal autocracy is typical
of Asiatic states. I have spent the greater part of the last two
years on a study of the Indian theory of government; the theory
is essentially the same as the Platonic and Chinese theories, and
is in fact the only theory of government that could be set up on
the basis of the philosophia perennis. I can say positively that the
Indian kingship, although divinely sanctioned (it would be truer
to say because divinely sanctioned), implied anything but a
personal autocracy. The last thing expected of the Indian
king was to do as he liked; he had to do what was correct
and according to the scicnce of government. The Regnum is
the agent of the Saccrdotum, and it is the kings business to do
what the philosopher knows ought to be done; might, in other
words, is to be the servant of right.
The traditional theory of government is certainly not one of a
government by all the people, but it is a theory of government
in accordance with justice, and for all the people. The distinc
tions between monarchy and tyranny are sharply drawn; the
monarch governs by divine right and with the consent of the
people; the tyrant is asserting his own will and opinions, to
which the people are forcibly subjected. Wc need hardly say
that there is nothing royal about a totalitarian despotism; the
tyrant, indeed, is generally a plebian himself.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
November 1946
Sir:
I fully agree with your reviewer, Paul Derrick (N E W, Oct
10) that between the idea of popular sovereignty and the idea
of natural law, there can be no compromise, and with the
views cited from Dr McCabe and Philip Murray. But I must
point out that he is wrong in saying that the doctrine of the
divine right of majorities has much in common with the
doctrine of the divine right of kings, and with such ideas as that
of the historic mission of the German race. In the first place
there is no such thing as a doctrine of the divine right of
majorities, but only an opinion held by many that it is right and
proper for a majority to impose its will on a minority; and this
view is entertained by many for whom the notion of a divine
right has no meaning whatever. In the second place, the
doctrine of a divine right of kings is not, historically speaking, a
doctrine that kings, as such, arc divinely sanctioned to do what
they like. It is, strictly speaking, a doctrine of the vicc-royalty
on behalf of the King of kings. As Rumi says in so many
words: Kings arc the theatre for the manifestation of Gods
kingship (Mathnawi 6.3174); while the classical definition of a
tyrant is a king governing in his own interests. The king is
the mediator of the Natural Law and by all means subject to it
himself. As an Upanishad expresses it: The Law (dharma) is
that by which the ruler is a ruler, and so there is nothing higher
than the Law. Hence a weak man can control a strong one by
the Law, as if by a king (BU 1.4, 14). An anonymous fifteenth
century English writer remarks that the Law is the highest
inheritance of the king by which he and all his subjects shall be
ruled. And if there were no Law, there would be no king and no
inheritance. More recently G. Every, writing in Purpose
(April-J unc 1939) remarked that an aristocracy functioning as
such must have a standard of responsibility outside of its own
and its leaders will. As for the Germans: there is a sense in
which every race and every individual has a historic mission,
or, in other words, divinely sanctioned rights and responsibili
ties.; where the Germans erred was in assuming that they had a
divine sanction to play the tyrant, as defined above.
Furthermore, the traditional doctrine of monarchy is insepar
able from that of vocation, which involves, as Mr Derrick
knows, all mens right (and duty) to participate as responsible
agents in the work of the worldas co-workers with God.
Every man in his calling participates in the mystery of the
vice-rcgcncy (khilafah, Caliphate) which was conferred on man
alone, as a trust (amanah). And finally, as Professor Buckler
has so often pointed outsee The Epiphany of the Cross
(Cambridge, 1938)the analogy of the kingdom of God on
earth cannot be understood unless the political theory on
which the analogy rests has first been understood. Whoever has
misunderstood the political analogy of earthly kingdoms and
their righteousness, cannot have grasped the meaning of the
kingdom of God and its righteousness, a meaning which
depends f or its revelation on the inner meaning of eastern
kingship, as Buckler points out in his chapter on The
Oriental Despot. All these considerations rather support than
invalidate Mr Derricks general position, and I think he may
find them acceptable.
AKC
F. W. Buckler, identified on p 72 above.
To PROFESSOR FERNANDO NOBRE
October 31, 1946
My dear Professor Nobre:
It was a very great pleasure to have your company on
Tuesday. I have found it very difficult to write any suitable
phrase for your book; I append below what I have done.
What chiefly interests me is that your endeavour has been to
design a workable social order ultimately based on the concept
of the Lex Aeterna, or Universal J ustice. On the other hand, I
am no more than M. Guenon, free to commit myself to any
kind of political propaganda. Moreover, even the best pat
terned structure must depend for its successful operation on the
goodwill of its members.
As regards the photograph: I had not understood that you
wished to reproduce it. I could not agree to that. The only
photograph that could suitably appear in your book would be
one of yourself. Besides, I am very much inclined to accept the
traditional point of view, that all portraiture is undesirable.
I am a monarchist, for many of the same reasons that
Professor Nobre is a demophile. But monarchy is hardly a
live issue at the present day. Totalitarianisma caricature of
monarchyis anathema. Dissatisfaction with the actual
operation of democracyin effect, free enterpriseis almost
universal except among those who profit by it. Hence, i f any
new and better world can be devised, it will not be in any of
these patterns. Professor Nobre has made an interesting and
practical suggestion in his plan of a Demophile Govern
ment; intended to preserve the stability of the traditional
orders based on the concept of Natural Law, and at the same
time, to avoid the kind of government that rests on unstable
balances of power reached by competing interests that are by
no means those of all the people.
AKC
Professor Fernando Nobre, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
To THE EDITOR OF ASIA
Undated, but written during World War II
Sir:
Mr L amotts discussion of the J apanese problem in the
October issue of Asia is scarcely realistic. He sees that it is idle
to expect that the J apanese people will, of thcmsleves,
repudiate the wicked militarists and go to liberal leadership,
and also that nothing short of a communistic revolution will
ever be sufficient to displace the present deeply-rooted attach
ment to the throne. I wonder if he is not on an altogether
wrong track in wanting to dispose of the Divine-Emperor
ideology of J apan, which seems to him so ridiculous. I am
assuming that J apan will ultimately suffer military defeat and
that that will mean, as he says, the collapse of all that the
makers of J apan have toiled at building these many years. But
is the modem J apan, created in the image of Europe, and so
distasteful to us, the creation of the Divine Emperor? Not at all:
it is the work of the industrialists and militarists.
It will certainly not be good psychological propaganda to
announce that we are out to destroy the ultimate basis of
J apanese culture and, indeed, to offend their deepest religious
instincts. I f there is great suffering in J apan, its people might
well listen to those who sought to destroy, not the Emperor,
but the militarists and industrialists through whom the suffering
came, and to whose power the Emperor is now subjected. The
Divine Emperor ideology of the East (for it is not only a
J apanese concept) having been uninterrupted in the history of
J apan, might have given J apan a certain title to act as the leader
of Asia in a movement designated by the slogan Asia for the
Asiatics. It is the militarists and not the Emperor that
perverted that into Asia for the J apanese.
The Asiatic theory of kingship stands for the subordination
of the military to the sacerdotal power, might to right. It is in
every sense of the word, philosophical and vernacular, an
idealistic theory. I need hardly say that Western sociologists are
profoundly ignorant of Oriental theories of government, and
scarcely even conscious that a totalitarian state governed by a
proletarian individual exercising unlimited power is nothing
but a pathetic caricature of monarchy. The Emperor Hirohito
and Adolph Hitler make strange allies, and sarcastic propagan
da to that effect could hardly fail to meet with some favorable
response.
I would suggest that instead of proposing to break down the
Divine Emperor ideology of J apan, for which I cannot share
Mr L amotts contempt, we should propose to the defeated
J apanese a restoration of the Emperor to a place of real
power. At the same time that such a proposal would enlist
the deepest sympathies of the J apanese psyche, a restoration of
the Emperor to power would automatically put the military
and industrial factions in their place.
AKC
To HELEN CHAPIN
Octobcr 21, 1945
Dear Helen Chapin:
On games generally, cf my Symbolism of Archery in Ars
Islamica, X, 1943.
In all ball games I think the ball is the Sun: there is a contest
for possession of it, or to direct it on its way; Gods and Titans
competing for the possession or direction of the world.
Severed head, precisely because that is the genesis of the sun
(this last I think you might have understood in the article). As
to what you said about castc, dont confuse caste with classes in
a would-be egalitarian culture. J ust as one must not confuse
monarchy with totalitarianism; the old definition of tyranny as
a monarch ruling in his own interests. All monarchy
presupposes viceroyalty on behalf of a transcendent justice
(dharma, dikaiosone): and castc metier function, determined by
ones nature, represents that own (sva in sva-dharma) share of
this vice-regal responsibility. Castc is the only system that
provides for the dignity of all men, whatever their occupation
(the only way that [integrates] all men into a certain royality,
provided it is not imposed upon them merely by economic
necessity). There arc conditions below caste (Russia, America)
and above castc (God, sannyasi, bhikkhu)', but the social norm is
one of the natural hierarchy of functions. We only resent the
idea because it is incompatiablc with capitalism (free for all, devil
take the hindmost, law of the sharks, etc) because our ideal is
not of beautiful work but only one of idleness (leisure,
Platos living in sports always), and bccausc we have no longer
any conception of liberty as anything but liberty of choice. In a
castc system this liberty (comparable to that of children in a
family, who do not yet share their parents responsibilities) to
do what one likesreally, the state of subjection to ones likes
and dislikesis least at the top. The proletarian ideal is one of
leveling all men down to this childish level. Of course, a herd, a
proletariat such as ours . . . could not bear the sudden imposi
tion of a sense of functional responsibilitythey would ridicule
the idea of judging work by is it worth doing? instead of
will it pay? I ought not to have to tell you all this: who have
lived in the East where it has not yet* become the fashion to
regard all values as bunk.
This brings me to your guru problem. When I go to India,
I shall hope to find one myself. At present all I have done is
what is called intellectual preparation. However, that is deja
quelque chose, and brings about a good deal of liberation.
What liberation I have thus attainedand however little it is, is
still eminently worth whilehas come about mainly through
constant reading of all the traditional literature and learning to
think in those terms. It means, of course, a metanoia, a thorough
change of mind: insensibly, those things our world rejects
became the standard by which we judge it. To undergo this
transformation demands a simultaneous crede ut intelligas and
intellige ut credas. So speaking qua guru, I would say you have
to read the 100 best books (I dont mean the St J ohns
College list, although some of them arc on it), not thinking
for yourself, but understanding for yourself, and always
proposing to be what you understand; for the popular view of
the philosopher as one who takes things, takes life, philosophi
cally is perfectly correct, and unless one proposes to live
philosophically, the study of philosophy becomes no more than
a drawing-room accomplishment.
To come down to the book: for instance, all of Plato, Philo,
Plotinus, Hermes, Dionysius, Eckhart, Boehme; some of J ohn
Scotus Erigcna, Nicholas of Cusa, St Thomas Aquinas (eg, at
least the first volume of the Summa in translation), St Bernard;
The Cloud of Unknowing. Also some of the American Indian
origin myths; all of Irish mythology; and the Mabinogion.
Folklore generally. From the East, all of Rumi, Attar and other
Sufi writings including J amis Lawaih; the Bhagavad Gita (in
various versions, until you know it almost by heart); the
Satapatha and the other Brahmanasand you know what of
Chinese and J apanese yourself. When you have assimilated all
this and begin to act accordingly, you will have got somewhere
and will find that much of the internal conflictwhich shall
rule, the better or the worse, inner or outer manwill have
subsided.
Very sincerely,
Helen Chapin, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. After
World War II, she was Asiatic A rt and Monuments Specialist for the US
Department of the Army and had been a research analyst in Chinese and
J apanese for the Department of J usticc. It was not Dr Coomaraswamys
position that such an extensive course of study was necessary for all; but he
felt that those who by position or choice were scholars should be properly
and fully prepared.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
J une 25, 1910
Dear Rothenstein:
Thank you for your letters and understanding words. I am
touched by the real sympathy between us. By the way, it seems
that you did not realise my wife is with me! If, as some have
suggested, I should be accused of or even imprisoned for
sedition on account of that book, I know that you and others
will do something to point out that such work does make for
real unity and that I might be more useful out of prison than in.
I fully enter into what you say. I want to serve not merely
India, but humanity, and to be as absolutely universal as
possiblelike the avalokitesvara. My own life just now seems
tangled. I do trust this may never hurt the work.
Y ours,
Rothenstein, Sir William, critic, one time head of the Royal College of Art,
leading figure in art circlcs and friend of Coomaraswamy.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
Undated
Dear Rothenstein:
I received your book of beautiful drawings a few days ago;
thank you very much first. I am delighted to have these
reproductions of your work and memories of Rabindranath.
I am still harassed about the permit to leave, have spent
several hours at Scotland Y ardthe difficulty is due to words
in a speech I made at Cheltenham in 1907! It is a bitter irony
altogether. I fear I shall fail, but am to hear at 12:20 tomorrow.
They fear I shall join the California seditionists who are in
league with the Germans! Will let you know the result.
Y ours,
William Rothenstein, as above.
Rabindranath is Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Indian poet and
philosopher who at one period enjoyed considerable popularity in Europe
and America, and who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1913. There
were a number of talented brothers in the Tagore family, and Coomaras
wamy was on friendly terms with this circle. Later, however, he outgrew the
rather vague humanism which characterized the Bengali renaissance, of
which the Tagores were the chief representatives.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
February 6, 1916
Dear Rothenstein:
I have had a very unpleasant expcricncc in connection with
our trip to Amercia. I got a passport without difficulty in
November, and afterwards made all arrangementsa matter of
no little expense and trouble, as you will imagine. Now at the
last moment, absolutely, I am informed (late on Saturday) that
I may not leave the country. No reason assigned, though I am
to see the Asst Commissioner of the CI D at Scotland Y ard
tomorrow and may possibly be told. I wonder if you have any
influence with the Home Office? There arc only 2 days to do
anything in. I dont so much feel the mere fact of not going,
though that presents very great financial disadvantages but I
very much resent the indignity of being treated this way at the
last moment. It seems to me extremely unjust. My wife is very
anxious not to go just now, for other reasons: but we had
decided to go, and had made all arrangements, so that I do not
like to be done in this way, and think you may possibly be
able to intervene or advise.
I hope you received Rajput Painting safely. Enclosed notices
of my wifes recitals may interest you.
Y ours very sincerely,
William Rothenstein, as above.
AK C had considerable difficulties with the British authorities because of his
views on Indian independence and, in fact, entered the United States as a
political refugee de facto if not de jurein 1917. See I ntroduction.
AK Ss wife, using the stage name Ratan Devi, sang and accompanied
herself on Indian instruments, giving recitals in Britain and America.
Rajput Painting, Oxford University Press, 1916.
To THE PEOPLES EDITOR, BOSTON TRAVELLER
Dcccmbcr 1943
Dear Sir:
In your issue of Dec 7, Rambler (rambling!) suggests that
India could not have defended herself without British help. As
to this, there are three things to be said: (1) could England have
defended herself without American help? (2) a totally disarmed
people cannot be asked to defend themselves, even when they
have been declared to be at war by their foreign rulers, who
in disarming them, have assumed the responsibility for their
defence, and (3) that after what took place in Malaya and
Burma, Indians have not felt too sure of Englands capacity to
defend them. In actual fact, Indians are helping England to
defend herself.
Nobody doubts that individual Englishmen have devoted
their lives to India. Was it their intention, by this devotion, to
establish a claim to political rights? In other words, is the
un-asked devotion of these few to be paid for by a whole people
at the price of years of political and economic subjection? As
one who, like Gandhi-ji, is fond of Englishmen (on their native
heath), I protest that the very idea of such a bargain would be
repulsive to any Englishman. Even Mr Churchill is too honest
for that, and frankly admits that Englands reasons for holding
India are economic (if we lose India . . . two million breadwin
ners in this country . . . would be tramping the streets
broadcast on J an 29, 1935).
Why should the Indians, whose average annual income is
about 18 dollars (Budget speech, Central Legislature Assembly,
April 1938) be asked to support two million English breadwin
ners? I f Rambler does not like the Polish parallel, let me ask, why
A room in Norman Chapel, Coomaraswamys home at Broad Campton, Gloucestershire, about 1908
strip Italy andjapan of their Empires, if the British Empire may
not be liquidated?
To drag in religious questions is disgraceful and childish.
Since when have European power politics been governed by
Christian considerations? On the other hand, culture,
politics and religion are indivisible in India. What, if anything,
does Rambler know about Indian religion or social organization
from any but prejudiced sources?
Sri Ramakrishna once remarked that English-educated Indi
ans arc profane; the late Sister Nivcdita (distinguished English
pupil of Patrick Geddcs, and author of The Web of Indian Life,
devoted her life to, and died in India) said that Christianity in
India carries drunkeness in its wake.
Y ours truly,
The Boston Traveller, now defunct, was a daily newspaper. Ramblers
letter is quoted below:
I think it is the height of insolence for an American recruit to tell British
veterans of bombs and shells that he was there to win for them. As for
comparing the freedom of Poland and India, I think if the subject was
studied a little more and talked of less, the freedom of India would be
accomplished more quickly. Poland was a Christian country, self-
governed and united. India has many different sects and castes, each
intolerant of the other. Their very religion makes education an uphill j ob
and many British men and women have devoted their lives and ruined
their health trying to help them.
I f the British did not occupy India, who do you suppose would be in
control by now?
Sister Nivcdita, The Web of Indian Life, London, 1904.
Sri Ramakrishna, greatest of nineteenth century Hindu saints, a Bengali
by birth; noted for his frequent and prolonged ecstasies, he attracted a wide
following and has been widely influential.
To ARTHUR SIBLY
December 6, 1945
Dear Arthur Sibly;
Apropos of your reference to India, in your last letter. I fully
understand that it is very difficult for you to realise that an
Englishman west of Suez and the same man cast of Suez arc
morally two different beings; this applies, of course, not
necessarily to actual physical position, but with reference to
that to which the mind is directed at a given time. Half
consciously, even Kipling understood this when he said that
there are no ten commandments East of Suez. No doubt he
thought he was speaking of the lesser breeds without the
law! but very little psychoanalysis would remind one that il
pittore pinge se stesso.
I am sending you two books, respectively by a Chinaman and
an Englishman, but only as a man that you can form a just
opinion (as an Englishman, your opinion will be English). Is
it too much to ask that you read these books only as a man,
forgetting that you arc an Englishman? For your humanity
transcends your nationality.
With kind regards,
Arthur Sibly was Principal of Wycliffc College, Stroud, Glostershire,
England, and a former classmate of AK C at this same establishment which is
the public school at which AK C matriculated prior to entering the
University of London. A copy of the previous letter to The Boston Traveller
was enclosed.
To ARTHUR SIBLY
November 14, 1931
My dear Arthur Sibly:
I cant help writing you again about India, because your
point of view expressed in the last Star (p 53) is so typically
heartless and self-satisfied. Quite apart from the fact that in
India we always have hundreds of men imprisoned without
charge or trial, and such men can be held for 5 years without
trial (your fathers history lessons taught me what to think of
such things as this!), I must mention that I have never met any
Indian (and you will realise that I know many who are your or
my equals or superiors, intellectually and morally) who
believed in British justice. Really, a fact like this ought to
make you think seriously. What do you think the English are? I
have no more anti-English feeling than Gandhi has, but it
seems equally ridiculous to suppose they are angels from
heaven, capable of governing a whole country entirely alien in
civilisation, from a distance and with perfect justice, regardless
of the fact that justice would often be against their own interest.
In fact, I have often said that one of the strongest reasons
against Englands governing India is the profound moral injury
it does to England. Do you realise how you speak like a visitor
from Mars? Whereas in fact you are the man in possession. It
would be funny i f it were not so tragic.
With kind regards,
Arthur Sibly, as above.
The Star was the school journal.
To ARTHUR SIBLY
J anuary 12, 1932
Dear Arthur Sibly:
Thanks for your reply to my letter, which I know was rather
forcible in expression. In discussing justice I had reference (a) to
the general situation, including for example the failure and even
obstruction of justice that followed the Amritsar massacre,
[and] (b) to justice as rendered in courts in cases between
Indians and the government or European individuals. (No
Englishman has ever been sentenced to death for the murder of
an Indian, I believe. Lord Curzon lost his Viceroyalty on trying
to do justice in a case of this kind.) I am ready to admit that in
some cases an English magistrate judging between two Indian
litigants may not only be perfectly just, but more just than an
Indian judge might always be in these circumstances. But this is
only a particular case of what would be generally true: for
example, a Swiss judge might deal better with a poaching case
than could an English squire on the bench. Still this would be
no argument for government of England by Switzerland.
I notice that English papers are filled with propaganda to
Buy British. The corresponding propaganda in India has
been made a felony by one of the recent arbitrary ordinances.
This kind of thing is part of what I refer to as the injurious
effect of the present situation on English morality. Still, I am
sure it is painful to men like Lord Willingdon to be forced,
whether by orders from England or by conviction of auty, to
resort to methods of repression which can only be described as
lawless: which in other countries, or in an India without ideas
like those of Gandhi, could only provoke a civil war. It seems
to me that Englishmen, even die-hards, must feel a certain
sense of shame in using force to coerce a disarmed people.
With kind regards,
A rthur Sibly, as above.
To ARTHUR SIBLY
J anuary 18, 1932
Dear Arthur Sibly:
I would add: a body of nine has been condemned to 4 years
imprisonment for picketing. One of the recent ordinances
permits a police magistrate to condemn to death in absentia a
man unrepresented by a lawyer and without appeal. Can you
wonder that The Nation here recently had an article entitled
Has Britain Gone Mad? I am not solely concerned about
India: I am appalled at the moral depths to which England can
descend, inasmuch as things are being done by Englishmen like
yourself, for example, normally of high moral principle and
respect for law.
Very sincerely,
A rthur Sibly, as above.
To THE NATION, NEW YORK
J anuary 29, 1924
Sir:
Lord Willingdon is reported to have said that no self-
respecting government could afford to ignore Gandhis chal
lenge. No one expects the British government in India to
ignore the present situation, but there are different ways of
responding to it. So far, the response to civil disobedience,
which has remained amazingly non-violent in view of the
intensity of the feelings involved, has been the establishment of
a legal reign of terror. Life pensions have been announced as
available for informers. Political prisoners are given hard
labour or deported. A man can be indefinitely imprisoned
without charge preferred, or condemned to death in absentia on
the basis of a police report alone; and while in Britain, the
slogan Buy British is everywhere proclaimed, in India
children have been condemned to years of imprisonment or to
the lash for peaceful picketing. These are not the acts of
self-respecting government, but of one driven by blind rage
and fear. One does not know how many English officials are
still living only as a consequence of I ndian reluctance to take
life; one does feel that the British arc hoping to break down this
patience so that they may have an excuse to use their rifles and
bombs on unarmed crowds. English diehards have repeatedly
admitted that England cannot afford to lose India; at the
same time they have made it impossible that anything else
should happen.
What, i f anything, can be done here? We cannot expect the
American government to interfere in British domestic
affairs, however scandalous. But would it not be helpful to
publish and distribute here some of the recent ordinances,
together with a few examples of ferocious penalties inflicted on
children, and then to prepare an open letter of protest, such as
one cannot doubt that a few hundred of the most distinguished
Americans would be glad to sign in their individual capacity?
AKC
The Nation, New Y ork.
To THE NEW AGE, LONDON
Octobcr 15, 1914
Sir:
The present co-operation of Indian with English forces on
the European battlefield is an unprecedented event. As not even
a war can be productive of unmixedly evil resultssuch is the
fundamental goodwill of manwe may, perhaps, put the fact
of this co-operation on the credit side. But let us, at the same
time, consider some of its larger implications.
I am not one of those who think that India owes a debt of
gratitude to England. Where Englishmen have served or do
serve the interests of India to the best of their ability in their
lifework, they do no more than their simple duty, whether we
regard this as responsibility voluntarily assumed, or as that of a
servant paid with Indian money. In the cold light of reason, it is
after all from the latter standpoint that most Anglo-I ndians
have to be judged. In many cases, perhaps in most cases, the
same work might have been done as well by Indians: and even
if less efficiently, none the less better done by Indians, since
efficiency is not the last word in human values. Passing over
elements of evident injustice, such as the Arms and Press Acts,
the Cotton Excise and Deportations without Trial, I see in the
ordinary operations of Government few causes for gratitude: so
far as Progress is concerned, to have done less would have
been criminal, to have done more would not have been
astonishing.
When we consider the so-called English Education that has
been given to Indialargely developed in the Macaulayan
spirit of those who think that a single shelf of a good European
library is worth all the literature of India, Arabia and
Persiaand now essentially a matter of vested interests for
English publishers, the closely preserved Imperial Education
Service, and Missionarieswhen we remember the largely
political purposes and bias of all this education, its needless
secularisation, and that it has discontented the Indians with all
that was dearest and best in their home life, and [when we]
perceive in what countless ways it has broken the threads of
traditional culturethen we are apt to feel something less than
gratitude. Compared with all this, the social ostracism of
Indians in India, of which we hear much, is a small matter. Nor
can we well forget that i f German culture is to be swept away,
we have something to lose that has done more than English
scholarship has done to make the culture of the East familiar to
Europe.
But i f I say that India has few causes to be grateful to the
English, that is not to say she should not be friendly. In most of
the deeper issues of life India has more to give than to receive,
and her growing consciousness of this fact is a more secure
bond than any considerations of self-interest. Perhaps there are
no two races that more than the Indians and the English stand
in need of each others complimentary qualities; broadly
speaking, the English needing our long view, and we their
practical view of life. Thus, there can never be too much good
feeling between the English and the Indians, nor refutation too
often made of K iplings dividing banalities. Y et, I marvel at the
generosity of Princes who offer sums for the prosecution of a
European war, of which sums several exceed the total amount
we have been laboriously collecting for many years for the
Benares Hindu University that is a necessity for our national
consciousness.
It is hoped by all idealists that one good result of the present
war, i f success is achieved by the Allies, will be a reordering of
the map of Europe on the basis of Nationality. At this moment
even I mperial Britain is in love with Nationalism, and
autocratic Russia has pledged autonomy to Poland. Most
Englishmen would like to see Kiao-chan restored to China, and
would be glad for Persia to recover her full independence, alike
from Russian and English interference. What will England do
for India? Will she do as much as Russia has promised to
Poland?
The present Polish policy, according to a published mani
festo, is one of neutrality, so far as this is in the power of
individuals. The Poles cannot sympathize with Germany, or
Austria, or even Russia, but rather wish that each of the Powers
may be so weakened as to make possible ultimate guarantees
of Polish independence. Some such view as this would be mine
for India, and for the Powers of Asia generally. Had India been
ready to create or to re-establish her own spiritual and political
sovereignty in this moment of European weakness, every
idealist must have rejoiced. But India is still increasingly
dominated by European ideals, and these often of fifty years
ago rather than of today. Her most advanced reformerswith
exception of a few Extremists, and Tolstoyans like Mr
Gandhiare typical Early Victorians. The time has not yet
come, though perhaps its seeds have been sown, when the
Indian consciousness could so far recover its equipoise as to
require expression in terms of immediate political self
dominion. One could wish it otherwise, but it is a fact beyond
denial that India has yet to go through the European experience
with I ndustrialism before she can become free in any sense
worth the name; her ultimate freedom has to be won in mental
warfare, and not in rebellion. Having regard, then, to the
circumstances of our day, and remembering that time and
desire arc equally needful for all fruitions, we can feel that the
present Indian co-operation and its welcome acceptance may
have, and, indeed must have, great and good results, beyond
those of the immediate conflicts. It is something gained, that
East and West will fight together against the ideals of
militarism, though, perhaps, few of the fighting Indians view
the matter in this light. At any rate, we can sympathize with the
English in their war for the Transvaal. It is something that the
Canadians (who have shown themselves so eager to exclude
every Indian immigrant from Canada) should offer praise and
gratitude for the action of India, which places that great
community in the post of duty and honour and will make it to
live in history ( Toronto Star): notwithstanding, it may
somewhat amuse us that this should be regarded as the
guarantee of our place in history-just as J apan was first
considered civilized when she achieved military success against
the Russians!
For all these and kindred reasons neither the national idealist,
nor the hater of war as war, need regret that in this war English
and Indians are fighting side by side. Only let the Indiansas
distinct from their own autocracies and from the English
bureaucracyremember the days to come. For the Germans
are not the only, though they may be the most extreme,
militarists in Europe: and after the war is ended, there yet
remains the unceasing, and, in the long run, more cruel war of
Industrialism. When humanity has solved that problem, and
made that peacewhich can never.be till East and West
consciously co-operate in social evolution, nor before the
religious aspect of life is considered side by side with the
materialthere may be peace indeed.
AKC
To PHILIP MAIRET
March 6, 1946
Dear Pam:
Entre nous and not for publication: In so many of your
editorials you say so many wise things that it shocks me to
what an extent you can at other times be confused. Im
referring now to your remarks about India in the issue of Feb 7.
Do you know, my wife (who has lived two years in India as a
student, lived as Indians live, spoke Hindi and learned Sanskrit)
laughed out loud when she read it? My primary interest is not, as
you know, political, so I will dismiss that aspect by remarking
that someone asked me recently i f I did not think there would
be great disorder i f the English quit, to which I replied: Little
doubt; it might be almost as bad as it is now. As regards the
English conscience, that is simply pour rire to us; no Indian
today regards an Englishmans word as even worth the paper it
may be written on. Right or wrong, these are the facts. On the
other hand, you admit another fact: that the Indians are
unanimous in saying quit India. I f the Englishman remains,
it is an illustration of the fact that outside England, he is
denatured; at home, the Englishman is a gentleman, one of the
most ch'arming in the world; east of Suez, something more like
a bounder. Do gentlemen remain where they are not wanted,
not trusted, and frankly disliked?
What you go on to say about Hinduism and Indian society
might have been written by any Baptist missionary. It is
precisely from the standpoint of the moral principles that
underlie the forms of Indian society that those of us who are not
yet Westernized and modernized, not yet mechanized or
industrialized, can and do criticize the immorality of modem
Western societies, with their free enterprise, which we call
the law of the sharks. I have in the press a lecture on The
Religious Basis of the Forms of Indian Society which I gave this
year by request of a Students Religious Association at
Michigan University recently, and will send it on as soon as it is
available. Meanwhile, for an English and Christian estimate of
the castc system do see Sir George Birdwood, Sva, 1915,
pp 83-88. Y ou owe it to yourself to do this. I wish, at the same
time, you could read Muehls article on the famine in the
J anuary issue of Asia and the Americas: and two articles by two
other Americans, called Colonial Report: First-hand Observa
tions, in Harpers, March 1946. Quit . . . India, J ava,
Annam,Asia; that is the only thing one can, i f one has any
humanity left, say to all Europeans. Im only amazed that you
can take up the subject so superficially and quite evidently with
so little knowledge of the cultural situation, and in particular
and obviously so little (if any?) knowledge of Hinduism.
Since you know how much I respect and agree with much of
your work, I am sure you will feel you had rather I spoke
frankly as above, than not.
Very sincerely,
Philip Mairet, editor of the New English Weekly, L ondon, a personal friend of
AK C and who married the first Mrs Coomaraswamy.
Sir George Birdwood, Sva, L ondon, 1915.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY LONDON
August 20, 1942
Sir:
From the standpoint of the purposes for which the Allies are
supposed to be fighting, the government of India by Britain is
an anomaly. Indians have been asked to fight for a freedom that
docs not include their own freedom. The Allies have not won
the whole-hearted co-operation of even those Asiatics who are
fighting on their side; nor will they until they include in their
program what still remains of a J apanese slogan, Asia for the
Asiatics, making it very clear that that includes India for the
Indians. Apologists of British rule have lately argued that the
Indians have been and would be far better off under British than
under J apanese rule. Indians agree. That is to say, that of two
evils, they prefer the lesser evil. But such a choice scarcely
makes for enthusiasm. The Allies can count far more on the fact
that the Indians arc whole-heartedly pro-Chinese than upon
their loyalty to England; so long as the Allies are true to
China, the Indians will be on their side for that reason alone,
but not because they are pro-British; they are primarily
pro-I ndian.
I f the recent negotiations broke down, whatever the immedi
ate or nominal reasons may have been, the ultimate reason is
that it was only too obvious that the British offers (even if a
British promise could have been trusted) did not proceed from
any change of heart on the British part; no such offers would
ever have been made i f Britain had not needed I ndias aid.
Actually, nothing can be offered effectively by England that
does not imply and confess a conviction of past sins. The
British arc human beings and Gandhi still believes in the
possibility of human beings making an upward growth. The
time for such an upward growth is now. Short of that, the
struggle will go on until the inevitable conclusion follows:
inevitable, because whatever the outcome of the present war, it
is clear that the days of European exploitation of Asia are over.
To free India from Britain is pre-requisite to saving India from
J apan; to hold on grimly to the brightest jewel in the British
crown may mean losing itto J apan.
Bound up with the political problem, but ultimately far more
important, is that of the cultural relations to be established in a
world conditioned by Allied victory and organized on the basis
of universal and co-operative self-determination. In that future
world all men will of necessity and to an ever increasing extent
have to live together. The mere industrialisation of Asia will
only set new rivalries in motion, and perhaps result in a new
and more terrible war, economic if not military. Much rather
must the nations be united in the endeavour to liberate mankind
from the evils of industrialism, from purely monetary valua
tions, and from the endeavour to live by bread alone, of which
the consequences are before our eyes.
In other words, if there is to be peace, the relations of
Europeans with Asiatics must be humanised; and since the
Europeans arc the interlopers, that is primarily a problem for
them. The cultural relations, so-called, of Europeans with
Asiatics have been until now almost exclusively commercial, or
only of European masters with Asiatic servants. Educated
Europeans in general and Americans in particular arc abysmally
and incredibly ignorant of Asiatic culture. The time is coming
when it will not be held that a man is master of humanistic
studies merely because he knows Greek; such a master will
have to be familiar also with the literature of at least one of the
three great classical languages of Asia: Arabic, Sanskrit or
Chinese. Mutual understanding and respect can only be
founded in an agreement on principles going deep enough to
result in the recognition of the inevitability of great differences
in the manner of their application.
The greatest obstacle to such an agreement on principles are
(sic) to be found in what Rene Guenon has so aptly termed the
proselytising fury of Europeans (and Americans). Actually,
the belief that there is but a single type of culture worthy to be
so called, and the conviction that it is ones duty to impose this
culture upon others for their own good, if not at the point of
the bayonet, at least by a resort to all the resources of prestige
and money power, is hardly less dangerous or destructive than
the belief in the existence of a naturally superior race, to which
all others ought to be subordinated for its own good and theirs.
By proselytising fury neither I nor Guenon have in mind
by any means exclusively or even chiefly the activity of
religious missionaries, harmful as these have often been. In this
connection, however, we must observe that a procedure based
upon the conviction that our own religion is the only true or
revealed religion, and not one amongst other religions based
upon a Truth in which all participate, not merely violates the
principle that truths can only be stated and known in
accordance with the mode of the knower, but can have results
quite as terrible as those that follow from the belief in a single
superior race or superior culture; every student of the history of
religious persecutions knows this. The proselytising fury is far
from being a purely religious phenomena. We see it quite as
clearly in the field of education, and in the often frankly
expressed wish and endeavour to impose a purely scientific
humanism upon the whole world, and in the distinction
commonly made between the advanced or progressive
peoples (ourselves) and the backward races (others). All that
must be outgrown; or shall we never grow up, never learn to
mix with men of other races on equal terms, but always remain
cultural provincials? As things now stand, we cannot be too
grateful that millions of illiterate Indian peasants and women
who cannot read our newspapers and magazines but are as
familiar with their own great Epics as Americans arc with
movie stars and baseball heroes, are still practically untouched
by any modern influence. Our first duty to these innocents (in
the highest sense of the word) is not to teach them our way of
living (in view of our present disillusionment, how could we
have the face to do that?) but simply to protect them from
industrial exploitation, whether by foreigners, or Indians.
Education can wait until we have educated ourselves; diseduca-
tion is far worse than none, for a culture that has survived for
millenia can be destroyed in a generation with the best
intentions. There arc probably not a dozen Englishmen
qualified to pronounce on any problem having to do with
humanistic studies in India.
I have already made this article too long. What I want to
emphasize is that the European, for his own and all mans sake
in the future world, must not only cease to harm and exploit
the other peoples of the world, but also give up the cherished
and flattering belief that he can do them good in any other way
than by being good himself; and that that is the first thing to be
understood whenever the question of British rule in India is
discussed.
AKC
This communication evoked the following correspondence from A. S.
Elwcll-Sutton in the September 3, 1942 issue of the New English Weekly.
Sir:
Dr Ananda K Coomaraswamys article is so full of question-
begging statements that it would occupy too much of your
space to deal with them adequately. I would, however, like to
put the following three questions to him:
1) When he speaks of the Indian outlook, culture, civilisa
tion, etc, does he refer to that of the Caste-Hindus, or the
Scheduled Castes, or the Moslems, Sikhs, Christians (some
of the latter dating from Apostolic times)?
2) Does he consider that the standard of administration and
justice in India before the British came were as high as those
since achieved?
3) Why is he so anxious to uphold the fallacy (as blatant as
that of racialism) of some insurmountable barrier between
the outlook of European and Asiatic, which Christianity
and Islam (themselves largely Asiatic religions) set out to
overthrow many centuries ago?
A. S. Elwell-Sutton
A K Cs answer follows in the next letter.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
November 12, 1942
Sir:
With reference to Mr Elwell-Suttons questions of Septem
ber 3rd: I need not say much about No. 3, as the Editor has
answered adequately on my behalf. I do oppose the typically
modern anti-traditional civilisation and culture, with its
impoverishment of reality (cf Iredell J enkins in the Journal of
Philosophy, September 24, 1942) and abstraction of meaning
from life (cf Aldous Huxley, Ways and Means, p 270ff) to the
traditional and normal civilisations and cultures of which
Indian can be cited as theor atype. On the other hand, my
writings are packed with references to the identities of Indian,
Platonic, Christian and other like ways of thinking; it is very
rarely that I cite a doctrine (eg, that of the Single Essence and
Two Natures), or duo sunt in homitie) from one source alone.
Further, I would refer Mr Elwell-Sutton to the chapter,
Agreement on Principles in Rene Guenons East and West. As
to No 2, I should like to take this opportunity to endorse and
emphasize Mr Herons dictum (New English Weekly, September
10, 1942, p 171) that systems of government should be
extensions of the peoples concerned, and to quote Platos well
known definition of justice as the condition in which every
man can fulfil his own natural vocation, a condition which it
has been the purpose and function of the caste system to
provide. On the other hand, education in India, so far as
Englishmen have controlled the expenditure of Indian money
for educational purposes, has been consistently directed to the
formation of a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but
English in tastes, in opinion, in morals and in intellect (Lord
Bentinck, see Cambridge History of India, VI, p 111); and this
education, as Sir George Bird wood wrote in 1880, has
brought discontent into every family so far as its baneful
influences have reached. Lord Bentinck even attempted to
stop the printing of Arabic and Sanskrit books . . . and to
abolish the Muhammedan Madrassa . . . and the Calcutta
Sanskrit College (ib). Neither can we pretend that the
economic relations between England and India have ever yet
approached justice. In any case, the concept of justice
covers far more than the merely impartial administration of
laws, especially when the said laws have not been made by
those to whom they arc applied, but by the foreign administra
tor himself, who combines in himself executive and judical
powers. It is, indeed, quite possible and even probable that a
well paid foreigner can be more impartial than any native in the
trial of cases in which his own interests are not concerned. Thus, if
the Chinese were rulers of England, it would be quite likely
that a Chinese magistrate would pronounce a more just
decision in a case between a poacher and a squire than would
the English magistrate be disposed to reach; yet we should not
regard that fact as an argument for the government of England
by Chinamen. And what of the cases, civil or criminal, in
which the interests of Englishmen and Chinese conflicted? The
same would be likely to happen that has always happened when
it is a question of an Englishman versus Indian. Everyone
knows into what terrible trouble Lord Curzon (who really tried
to be the just beast) got himself by attempting to enforce the
law in the case of the murder of a native by an English
man. We may also recall that not many years ago it was possible
in Bengal for a man to be condemned to death without a proper
trial or even being allowed to face his accusers, and I believe it
is still true, as it certainly was very recently that a man can be
arrested and held incommunicado without preferred charges
for so long as it seemed convenient. So much for justice.
Question No 1 would require a long discussion and a
profound knowledge of the cultures referred to. It is partly
answered, as in the case of No 3, by the consideration that the
differences between these cultures are rather accidental than
essential; the weight of the differences tends to disappear in
proportion to our understanding and in the absence of any third
party in whose interest it is to emphasize them. For example,
J ahangir (in his Memoirs) could speak of his Hindu friend
J adrups Vedanta as the same as our tasawwuf' (Sufism); and I
have known more than one Roman Catholic who saw and said
that there is no real opposition or essential difference between .
Christianity and Hinduism, while, as Rene Guenon very truly
remarks: Hindus may sometimes be seen encouraging Euro
peans to return to Catholicism,, and even helping them to
understand it, without being in the least drawn to it on their
own account. Those who know India best and can think in the
terms of I ndian thought, are more impressed by her cultural
unity than by her apparent diversity. There are unities more
essential and more important than any political unity; and these
are based on common understandings of the ultimate ends of
life rather than upon its immediate purposes, as to which there
can be an almost endless variety of notions.
No doubt the problem of the minorities in India is not
without its difficulties; we understand that very similar
difficulties are faced by the American Negroes at the present
moment; and that even in Europe the minorities problems will
not be too easily solved even when the war is over. It may be
doubted whether they can be solved by any democratic
government (in which the controlling powers represent in
terested jgroups) or any tyranny (in Aristotles definition,
government in the interest of the ruler), or by any other than a
just government, one in which (as in the Indian theory of
government) J ustice (Dharma) is the King of kings. The present
position of Negroes in democratic Amcrica, and the capacities
of Englishmen for feeling colour (ie, racial) prejudice do not
lead one to suppose that either of these peoples would be very
capable of justly balancing the interests of different Indian
communities; and in any case, who has told them that to do so
is their business?
AKC
To MONSIEUR ROMAIN ROLLAND
August 22, 1920
My dear M Romain Rolland:
It is by a curious coincidence that I had written to you only a
few days before I received your letter of J uly 6, with your
invitation to subscribe to the Declaration de IIndependence de
VEsprit. I accept with great appreciation this honor and signify
my adherence accordingly. I am indeed convinced that a real
unity moves in the minds of men who are widely separated by
space and by artificial barriers, and that this unity persists
unchanged behind the curtain of a conflict that is more or less
unreal. By unreal, I mean arising from an illusion superim
posed upon people who have no quarrel with one another.
It is sad that the formulae of thought should have been
prostituted in the service of hatred. But to destroy the unreal, it
is needful, not that we should seek to punish others, only that
we ourselves recognize and live in accord with what is real.
Alas that at the present time the Powers have shown so
little self-respect, so little self-restraint, and so little sense of
reality. They have sought to build for themselves bigger
barns, not thinking that their life may be required of them!
There is a Buddhist text that it would have been well to
rememberVictory breeds hatred: because the conquered are
unhappy.
And with regard to the still subject raceshow is it that the
Powers forget that the greatest injury must be inflicted by
the tyrant upon himself?
Believe me, yours most cordially,
Romain Rolland, well known Frcnch author; his sister translated AK Cs
Dance of Shiva into French.
This letter, so replete with banalities, may serve to show how
Dr Coomaraswamy's thought matured to the rigorous standards of his later
years.
To SECRETARY OF STATE JAMES F. BYRNES
November 11, 1945
Dear Sir:
It is becoming more and more evident that the Atlantic
Charter is a dead letter so far as the American Government is
concerned. Confronted with the situation in J ava, all you have
done is to order that the Dutchwho are using American
military equipment given to them for use against the J apanese,
to suppress the J avanese national movementto paint out or
otherwise remove or conceal the signs of its American origin. Is
this not a case of the ostrich hiding its head in the sand? I
wonder i f you have asked yourself whether such an underhand
policy will pay in the long run. The Asiatic peoples are
perfectly able to recognize who are, or are not, their friends;
and a time will come when (to say nothing of present
moralities) the friendship of even such far-away peoples as the
J avanese may be of value to the United States, whose
government is supposed to believe in some kind of cooperation
by all the peoples of the world.
Y ours very truly,
J ames Francis Byrnes, Secretary of State (1945-47), Government of the
United States.
AK C signed this letter in his capacity as Honorary Chairman of the National
Committee for I ndias Freedom.
To DR ANUP SINGH
J uly 10, 1944
Dear Dr Anup Singh:
I look forward with pleasure to the appcarancc of a
Symposium to be entitled the Voice of India, to be published
in the cause of Indias freedom. We hear nowadays almost
exclusively of Indias right to a political and economic freedom
and (with the exception of an infinitesimal number of Indian
traitors whose vested interests are bound up with the status quo)
we affirm this right unanimously and unconditionally.
There are, nevertheless, other and perhaps even more im
portant freedoms to be considered, which may be called
collectively a cultural freedom, bearing in mind that in a
country such as India, with all its millenial and living traditions,
and where it has never been attempted to live by bread alone,
no dividing line can be drawn between culture and religion.
There are cultural and religious as well as political Imperial
isms; and i f we arc to be free in any more real sense than that in
which the economically determined Western man of today is
free, then our whole system of education must be liberated not
only from direct or indirect control by any foreign govern
ment, and from the text-book racket, but also from the
proselytising fury of those who identify civilisation with
democracy, and democracy with industrialism and culture with
scientific humanismor, conversely, religion with Christian
ity.
This means that Western friends of Indian freedom must
recognize that ours, if it is to be real, will include a freedom to
differ from them in very many important issues. Our voice
that they can hear is largely the voice of a generation of men
already tutored willy-nilly by Europeans and moulded by the
characteristic forms of Western education and Western moral-
ism; but there are other voices, those of our true conservatives
and authentically Indian, which it is almost impossible for our
Western friends to hear. To these friends, whose sense of justice
and disinterested labours we gladly acknowledge, there must
be spoken this word of friendly warning: that it is not always a
freedom to abolish the castc system or to break down purdah, or
to establish a system of universal compulsory education
quantitative rather than qualitative, or a liberty to choose our
representatives by count of noses, that we want. We want also a
freedom not to do any of these things, especially if, like the
Pasha of Marrakesh, we do not want the incredible American
way of lifewith its exorbitant percentage of mental casual
ties. The voice of a free India will not be an echo of any other,
however confident, but her own.
AKC
Dr Anup Singh, Indian born author, lecturer and political scientist resident in
US. This letter was published in The Voice of India, a monthly issued by the
National Committee for I ndias Freedom, Washington, D. C., U.S.A ., of
which Dr Singh was an official.
To THE VOICE OF INDIA
November 1946
Sirs:
To Pandit J awaharlal Nehru I extend cordial greetings on his
birthday, best wishes for his success in the conduct of the
present I nterim Government, in winning the confidence and
support of our Muslim countrymen and friends, and in all his
endeavours to establish relations of economic and cultural
intercourse with other peoples. By many sacrifices and much
suffering, and by his persistent efforts in recent years to
discover India he has qualified himself for the responsibilities
that rest upon him.
AKC
The Voice of India as above.
The following letter was sent to Dr Coomaraswamy on J uly 4; 1944:
Dear Dr Coomaraswamy:
A committee of distinguished citizens in India have made
plans to publish a 500-page volume to commemorate Gandhis
75th birthday and to tender it to the Mahatma on Oct 2nd or
later. The committee have asked me to approach Gandhis
friends and admirers in America for contributionspreferably
essays in appreciation, but at least brief messages. Accordingly,
I am humbly approaching you, knowing of your admiration
for the I ndian leader. . . .
Sincerely, yours,
Krishnalal Shridharani
The following response was sent:
Mahatma Gandhi-ji, Namaste:
I am happy to have this opportunity to express my feelings of
highest respect and admiration for the great leader who,
throughout his life, has consistently refused to dissociate
politics from religion; and has never repudiated the caste
system, but would only re-form, ie, correct its working.
I mention these two things because of the fundamentally
I ndian or rather universally traditional principles involved. The
concept of government as a divinely delegated power, and that
of a vocational status determined by ones own nature are the
indispensable supports of any sacramental sociology or dedi
cated life. There can be no just or stable government devised or
administered by anyone who is not himself an obedient subject
ofjustice (dharma, dikaiosune), or as we should express it, is not
a Dharmaraja. The concept of self-government (svaraj) is not
then primarily, but contingently a matter of independence of
foreign domination. In the Indian and traditional theory of
government the essential quality of royalty is one of self-
control. The principle holds good equally if the government is
by an aristocracy or even by a bureaucracy. A just government
is not a balance of power established as between the representa
tives of competing, interests; the ruler must not govern in his
own interest, or in that of the poor or common man, but
impartially. Y ou, Mahatma-ji, have seen that it is only by
means of an interior discipline that India can free herself, or
keep her freedom from any external tyranny.
As for the caste system: justice and freedom manifested in the
social order can only mean that it is just that everyman should
be free to earn his daily bread of following that vocation by
which his natural (natal) abilities imperiously summon him.
There can be no justice in an industrial society, however
classless, under the law of the sharks, or as it is called here,
free enterprise, which means his hand against every mans,
and every mans hand against him; nor freedom where
unemployment is a condition of progress, and mans
occupations are therefore economically determined. If, as
Eric Gill points out, the factory system is unChristian because
it deprives workmen of responsibility for their work, it is no
less unHindu in as much as it denies to everyman the very
means through which he can best of all develop his own
perfectionthat of a devotion to his own work. No one can be
called free who is not free to love his own work and to perfect
it. The modern artisan, on the contrary, as J ean Giono says, has
been degraded by the machine; the possibility of making
masterpieces has been lost to him. We have eradicated from his
mind the need for quality and made him eager for quantity and
speed. Whereas the caste system is inseparably bound up with
the concept of quality, at once in the produce and the
production. It is from the standpoint of the castc system that
we judge the incredible American way of life, and repudiate
it, except to the unfortunate extent that it may be forced upon
us in self-defcnce.
It is proverbial in India that men are naturally inclined to
love, and even to overvalue their own hereditary professions,
whatever these may be; a lineage is, indeed, considered broken
if the family profession is abandoned. In any case, the
professions are sacred obligations and even, as A. M. Hocart
has called them, priesthoods. As J acob Boehme, who was
himself a shoemaker, says (and let us not forget that caste is by
no means an exclusively Indian institution):
Whoer thou art, that to this work art born
A chosen work thou hast, howeer the world may scorn.
I f you ask an Indian who he is, he will reply I am a lover of
God, by his name of Vishnu or Krishna or Siva or Kali, as the
case may be. None of us has any difficulty in understanding St
Pauls recommendation Let every man abide in the same
calling wherein he was called. . . . For he that is called, being a
servant, is the L ords freeman.
As regards the related question of the untouchability of those
who arc without castc or have lost castc, it is one that we must
resolve for ourselves in our own way. Since those who have
lost castc can be reinstated by rites of purification, it might be
possible by means of an analogous prayascitta, to lift up any
qualified outcaste, ie, anyone able and willing to accept the
spiritual disciplines that caste demands. Swami Vivekanandas
dictum, I f the outcastcs would improve their status, let them
learn Sanskrit, is a pointer in this direction. Let us not forget
that the Gods, to whom members of the three higher castes
correspond, were originally mortal, and won their present
position solely by their adherence to the Truth, that Satyagraha
of which you have personally demonstrated the power. A
related procedure might involve the decision that there are
kinds of work and conditions of work to which no one of the
human species should be asked to submit; and in making such a
decision, one might at the same time contribute by example to
a solution of some of the problems of labour in the West, where
the chain belt workers, overseen by efficiency experts, can
hardly be distinguished from the members of a chain gang
except by the fact of their daily escape. For the rest, and as
things are, I will only say that we might as well admit
Americans as admit outcastes indiscriminately to our sanc
tuaries. It is indeed by no means unlikely that it is a resentment
of our classification of them as untouchables, couplcd with
pangs of conscience about their own treatment of Negro
citizens, that has made Americans so sensitive to many aspects
of our social problems that they do not understand.
I conclude, Mahatma-ji, by saying how gladly I associate
myself with my fellow countrymen here in paying you honor
upon the occasion of your seventy-fifth birthday. All of us wish
you many, and happier returns of the day.
AKC
The committee in question did not see fit to publish this letter. For A K Cs
other views of Gandhi-ji, see also Mahatma in Mahatma Gandhi Essays and
Reflections on His Life and Work, edited by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, L ondon,
1939.
Prayascitta = expiation, atonement, amends, satisfaction, penance.
To S. DURAI RAJA SINGAM
October 26, 1946
Dear Durai Raja Singam:
As to yours of October 17, there is obviously very much in
Gandhi-jis sayings about art that I can fully agree with, but I
dont think any good purpose would be served by trying to
draw parallels with things I have said. I have the highest respect
for Gandhi-ji, of course, and also agree with him in all that he
(and Bharatan Kumarappa) have to say about industrialism on
the one hand and Villagism on the other. But all that
Gandhi-ji has to say about art is a product of his individual
thinking; he docsnt really know what he is talking about, and he '
often seems to hold the naive view that art means just
painting, whereas art, from an Indian and all traditional points
of view covers all making and ordering, and so embraces about
one half of all human activity, the other half being represented
by conduct (urthi). On the other hand, all that I have to say
about art is not a matter of personal thinking at all; it is a matter
of knowledge, based on sruti and smriti.
An example of Gandhi-jis deviation, the result of personal
feeling, is his attitude to the wearing of jewellery (on which see
my article on Ornament in Figures of Speech. . . ). Where he
should have distinguished between good (significant) and bad
(meaningless) jewellery, he simply wants everyone to stop
wearing it! This is a part of his propagandist asceticism; his
asceticism is right for him, and no one would defend Sanyas
against the world more than I would; but he is very wrong in
demanding not merely a certain austeritybut particular
sacrifices from everyone; that can only result in all the evils of a
premature Vairagya; even Sri Krishna would not have all
men follow in his way (Bhagavad Gita III, 23)! Much of all this
is due to Gandhi-jis intellectual background, which is still
fundamentally Victorian. So while I can agree with many
things that Gandhi-ji has to say about art, I disagree with the
general trend of his position in this matter.
Gandhi-ji is a saint, not an intellectual giant; I am neither, but
I do say that those whose authority I rely on when I speak have
often been both.
By the way, I cant find time to write to your son yet awhile;
anyway, he ought to write to me first !!!
Very sincerely,
S. Durai Raja Singam, identified on p 25.
Although we have not undertaken *o define every foreign word and phrase
that appear in this collection, several that are used in this and the preceeding
letter are so fundamental to an understanding of the letters themselves and
especially to some degree of understanding of Indian thought generally that
exception have been made. Thus, srwfi=revelation, the revealed word, that
which was heard in principio. Smriti derives from sruti, being that which
derives from reflection on the latter; tradition, that which is handed down.
Vairagya -r- turning away, renunciation; from viraga, dispassion. This is the
second requisite for an aspirant to gnosis (jiiana), the first being viveka or
discrimination (between the Real and the unreal).
To MR KODANDO RAO
April 10, 1947
Dear Mr Kodando Rao:
It was a pleasure to meet you again and to hear you speak
yesterday. As you know, I also have constantly emphasized
that the great difference between the traditional Indian and the
modern western outlook on life arc a matter of times much
more than that of place. I would like to urge you to study some
of the modern Western writers on these subjects, especially
Guenon, of whom you will find some account in a little book
of my own that I am sending you.
As Mr Toynbee said, We (of the West) arc just beginning to
see some of the effects of our action on them (of the East), but
we have hardly begun to see the effectswhich will certainly
be tremendousof their coming counteraction upon us.
Toynbee speaks of the West as the aggressors and the East as
the victims. Historians, he says, a thousand years hencc, will
be chiefly interested in the tremendous counter cffcct which,
by that time, the victims will have produced in the life of the
agressor, and thinks the real significance of the coming social
unification of mankind will not be found in the field of
technics and economics, and not in the field of war and politics,
but in the field of religion. Y ou, perhaps, would prefer to say
in the field of thought or philosophy; at any rate, in that of the
ultimate principles on which any civilisation is really based.
We Orientals, then, have at least as much responsibility for
the kind of world that wc shall be in the future as have the
Western cultures that arc still predominant but at the same time
declining. Few of our students from India have had any chance
to realize the extent to which leaders of Western thought are
themselves aware of this decline. Y ou will find some discussion
of it in my little book; but let me add that at Harvard, the
Professor of Education very often refers to Western civilization
as an organized barbarism, and that the Professor of Sociology
in a letter I received yesterday refers to it as a nightmare. To a
large extent, Indian students are just barbarians too, just
coming over here to learn our method of organization. Is it
really this barbarism and this nightmare that we want Indian
students to acquire and take back with them to India? Is it not,
on the other hand, also their duty to bring something with them
when they come here? Something of their own to contribute to
the solution of the great problems of the relation of mans work
to his life, that faces the East and the West alike?
How can man live happily? This is a much more important
question than that of how to raise their standard of livingso-
called. We forget that men have hearts as well as minds and
bodies that want to be fed!
There is something mean and cheap about the way we all
come here, to study. There is an old saying that whoever
would obtain the wealth of the Indies must take the wealth of
the Indies with him, to buy with. What do our already
anglicized boys who are so much ashamed of their unedu
cated wives and sisters bring with them? Do they bring
anything whatever that Americans havcnt got already? Of
course these Americans are not interested in you; you have
nothing to offer and only come to get what you can! Not two
per cent of Indian students come here to study cultural
subjectsare only qualified to study pl u mbi n g ?
These boys return to India a queer mixture of East and West,
strangers here and no longer at home there! How can they ever
expect to be happy men?
We arc glad to say that some Indian students at least are soon
disillusioned and long to go back to discover India, for they
have never known their own home, the which they learn about
for the first time from Europeans.*
Y ou raised the question of hospitality: let me say that we
often, and with pleasure, entertain groups of Indian students at
home. They take possession of our kitchen, prepare their own
food; the shoes arc left at the door, they wash their hands, we
all eat on the floor, with our own fingersjust as one would in
India. My wife and I arc intellectually more orthodox and
old-fashioned than most of the boys who come to us. But we
arc painfully Europeanized nevertheless. What is more, we do
not expect that the boys will be free to invite us to cat with
them and their families in their homes, nor do we expect them
to treat us on terms of social equality in India. How much less
have ordinary Americans and Europeans a right to expect such
a thing?
As a matter of fact, we respect more those Indians who will
not cat with us, than those who will. We see no reason why we
should contaminate their homes and kitchens merely out of
politcncs.
As for the girls: I say that however much they knowa man
is still u n e d u c a t e d if he cannot appreciate and understand
and be happy with an Indian girl, if she is still Indian, however
little of his kind of information she may have. Praise God if the
Indian girl retains standards and concepts of value about life and
conduct that European women have been robbed of. I f most of
them want to stay as they are, for Gods sake let them!
Take note of what Sir George Birdwood wrote in 1880:
Our (Western) education has destroyed their love of their own
literature . . . their delight in their own arts and, worst of all,
their repose in their own traditional and national religion. It has
disgusted them with their own homestheir parents, their
sisters, their very wives. It brought discontent into every
family so far as its baneful influences have reached.
With kind regards,
* European, as frequently used by Asians and Africans, refers to persons of
European ethnic background and is not limited to Frenchmen, Germans,
Spaniards, etc, and may often be applied to Americans.
Pandurangi K odando Rao was an I ndian academic, a lecturer in botany, who
became involved in the independence movement and was imprisoned for his
support of Gandhi. He wrote widely on public affairs, and lectured in India,
Canada, the USA and Australia. He was married to an American wife, and
was a moderate in politics.
Sir George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood, British civil servant, born in
India, was also a professor of botany; came to England while still a young
man and worked for many years in the India Office. He maintained a lifelong
professional interest in India.
Address given by Dr Coomaraswamy at Philip Brooks House, Harvard
University, on the occasion of the unfurling of the flags of newly independent
India (Hindustan) and Pakistan, 15 August 1947.
The Renaissance of Indian Culture
Our problem is not so much one of the rebirth of an Indian
culture, as it is one of preserving what remains of it. This
culture is valid for us not so much because it is Indian as because
it is culture. At the same time its particular forms arc adapted to
a specifically Indian nature and inheritance, and they are
appropriate to us in the same way that a national costume is
appropriate to those who have a right to wear it. We cut a sorry
figure in our foreign or hybrid clothes, and only invite the
ridicule of foreign musicians by playing the harmonium.
The younger generation of go-getters that comes to America
to study, and that will largely shape the course of Indian and
educational policies in the immediate future is, for the most
part, as ignorant of Indian traditions and cultural values as any
European might be, and sometimes even more so; and just
because of this lack of background cannot grasp the American
and European problems that confront it.
Freedom is the opportunity to act in accordance with ones
own nature. But our leaders arc already de-natured, quite as
much as Lord Macaulay could have wished them to be: a class
of persons Indian in blood and colour but English in tastes, in
opinions, in morals, and in intellect. Because they have yet to
discover India, they have not realized that the modern world
is no longer an integrated culture, but an organized barbar
ism and a political pandemonium. They hav*e no more the
moral courage to be themselveswithout which they can be
of little use to themselves or anyone elsethan had their
predecessors upon whom a so-called Western education had
been more forcibly imposed in Missionary colleges or govern
ment controlled universities.
It will take many a long year yet for India to recover her
spontaneity. For the present, most of our educated men are
just as much as Americans dominated by the current catch
words of equality, democracy, progress, literacy,
and so forth. In the past, and still today, Indians have earned
and deserved much of the contempt of the Europeans whom
they have flattered so sincerely by an imitation of all their habits
and ways of thinking. We, too, arc on our way to become a
nation of Siidras, at the same time industrious and ignorant.
Notwithstanding that all the precepts of philosophy refer to
life, we have learnt from the modern world to despise the
lover of wisdom, and to leap before we look.
On the other side of the Indian picture are the great figures of
such Indian sociologists as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Bharatan
Kumarappa. Both are advocates of forms of human association
unfavorable to war, and both arc significant as much for the
rest of the world as for India, in this age of violence. Unlike the
Utopias of the modern West, neither of these men supposes
that the ills of the world can be cured by planning or economic
means alone, without a change of heart. Both are seeking to
restore forms of social organization in which human values
shall predominate over those of success evaluated in terms of
money.
Again, throughout the ages, India has been a land of
profound religious convictions and of equally generous reli
gious tolerance. Here at least, i f nowhere else, it is still possible
for men to think of their own faith as the natural friend and ally
of all others in a common cause. It has been said that in the
West, religion is fast becoming an archaic and impossible
refuge. But in India it still provides for both the hearts and
minds of men, and gives them an inalienable dignity because of
this. The natural conncction of religion with sociology and
politics has never been broken. There is no such opposition of
sacred to profane as is taken for granted in the modern West; in
our experience, culture and religion have been indivisible; and
that, in our inheritance, is what we can least of all afford to
abandon.
Indian women, at the present day and in so far as they have
not yet been brought up to date, are our best conservators of
Indian culture. And let us not forget that in a country like India,
any judgement of standards of culture in terms of literacy
would be ridiculous; literacy in the modern world of
magazines and newspapers is no guarantee of culture whatever;
and it is far better not to know how to read than not to know
what to read.
In the meantime, also, there is an immediate and desparate
need for the establishment of cultural, and not merely
economic and political contacts with the rest of the world. No
doubt, the West is very largely to be blamed for its own
cultural isolation, which amounts to a very real provincialism;
but the blame is also ours, for our students and other
representatives abroad arc more often engineers, or physicists
or politicians than men of culturewhere they ought to have
been both at once, able to contribute something more than their
fees to those from whom they came to learn the newest
techniques. When the culture that we propose to restore was
live, the learned men of foreign countries came from far and
wide to study in India. The measure of our culture is not that of
our ability to learn new tricks, but that of what we have to
give.
I have been asked: What is your message to the new India of
our dreams? This is my answer: Be your self. Follow
Mahatma Gandhi, Bharatan Kumarappa, D. V. Gundappa,
Abdul Kalam Azad, Abdul Gaffar Khan, and Sri Ramana
Maharshi. Cooperate with such men as the Earl of Ports
mouth, George Bourne, Wilfred Wellock, Marco Pallis, Rene
Guenon, J ean Giono, Fernando Nobre. Do not consider the
inferior philosophers. Be not deceived: evil communications
corrupt good manners.
AKC
Obviously this short address is not strictly a letter, but it repeats in a clear
and incisive manner points that AK C made in letters to his correspondents
and, particularly, to the New English Weekly; it is also an admirable
summation of his views apropos the soul of the newly independent India,
and for these reasons it is includednot to speak of its pertinence for
ourselves.
To MRS GOBINDRAM J. WATUMULL
August 29, 1944
Dear Mrs Watumull:
Many thanks for your letter and prospectus. I have always
had most pleasant relations with the Bombay merchants of
India and Ceylon and always respected them as staunch
supporters and adherents of a truly Indian orthodoxy.
As regards your Foundation, I feel some hesitation. I have, as
you say, contributed to the mutual understanding of East and
West. But this is not at all an easy problem, and means
something more than learning to do business and eat, drink
and be merry together. Modem civilisation is fundamentally
opposed to all our deepest values. I am not all sure that even a
wordly advantage is to be gained by learning from America,
land of the dust bowl, now when, as J acks and Whyte say in
The Rape o f the Earth, misapplied science has brought to the
worlds richest virgin lands a desolation compared with which
the ravages of all the wars in history are negligible. Cf the Earl
of Portsmouths Alternatives to Death, and the many similar
books that have been lately published in England; and also, of
course, Marco Pallis Peaks and Lamas, an outstanding work of
the contact of cultures, and especially valuable for its discussion
of the problem of education.
Our young men who' come to America know little or
nothing of their own civilisation; these young ignoramuses,
graduates as they may be of Agricultural or Engineering
colleges, have nothing of their own to contribute to America.
A true reciprocity is impossible under these conditions. What
we need is Professors of Indian rather than of American
civilization. I note that your program considers only agri
cultural and technical education, to the exclusion of those
fields on which can be established a real cultural exchange. Had
I not better wait and look forward to your visit to Boston this
Fall?
Very sincerely,
Mr and Mrs G. J . Watumull of Honolulu, Hawaii, had established a
Foundation to promote, and a chair of, Indian Culture at the University of
Hawaii in the interests of better understanding between the peoples of the
United States and I ndia, and had asked AK C to become a member of the
Advisory Board.
J acks, G. V. and Whyte, R. O. The Rape of the Earth, London, 1939.
The Earl of Portsmouth, Alternative to Death, London, 1943.
Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, L ondon. 1939.
To MRS GOBINDRAM J. WATUMULL
J anuary 3, 1944
Dear Mrs Watumull:
Of course, it is a worthy object to wish to alleviate Indian
poverty and disease. The difficulty lies in the fact that modern
civilisation has so many difficulties and dangers of its own, for
example such a high lunacy rate in America. One can do
irreparable psychological damage whilst trying to do physical
good. There is just as much difference between the enormous
ly wealthy and the pitifully poor here as there is in India.
The only ways to remedy such things are partly political and
then by restoring (if it were possible) the status of the guilds
and panchayats, and the joint family system. We have disrupted
the structure of Indian society, and then blame it for not
functioning!* Does Western society function? What is free
enterprise but his hand against every man, and every mans
hand against him?
Y ou speak of the background of Oriental learning, etc, that
we possess. It is little enough. But I do not sec how one can
hope to help others until one has thoroughly grasped and unless
one is in sympathy with their aspirations, their way of life, their
whole ideology. Whoever would [render such help must]
first of all become one [of them]. In China, the J esuits are
required to have earned their living for two years by practising a
Chinese trade before they are allowed to teach. I believe the best
thing anyone can do for India is to go there to study.
I shall be meeting the Scientific Mission here, too; and am
reading a lecture for them and the MI T boys on Science and
Religion (the argument being that there is no possible conflict
between them).
With kindest regards,
*AK C, in argument, did not always take into account the fact that India was
culturally decadent and internally divided or else the Europeans would never
have gained a foothold there. The same applies to the earlier and doubtless
providential advent of the Muslims in India.
Mrs Gobindram J . Watumull, as above.
MI T = Massachusetts I nstitute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USA.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
May 11, (year not given)
Sir:
Mr Duncan, reviewing C. F. Andrews The True India in
your issue of March 30, is perfectly right in asserting that only
Mr Andrews moralism leads him to deny the phallic symbol
ism of the litigant and the employment of erotic symbolism in
Indian art and metaphysics. The lingam is unquestionably a
phallus; and there are sculptures and paintings of which it may
be said that they ought not, perhaps, to be seen by those who
are entirely ignorant of their significance, and therefore capable
of a shocking irreverence until they rerrch the stage in which,
having discovered the essential truths, they become indifferent
to the mode in which they arc presented (Sir J ohn WoodrofFe,
The Garland of Letters, 1922, p 220).
What could be done in India could not have been done with
equal propriety in Europe, and might have been ill-adapted to
what J ung has called the brutal morality suited to us as
recently civilised, barbaric Teutonic peoples . . . (for whom) it
was unavoidable that the sphere of instincts should be
thoroughly repressed (Wilhelm and J ung, Secret of the Golden
Flower, p 125).
At the present time, it may be observed that although
Christian theology is rarely presented in terms of an erotic
symbolism perceptible to the eye, it has by no means neglected
the use of a verbally erotic symbolism, and that no distinction
can be drawn in principle between what is communicated to the
eye and what to the ear. It holds for Christianity as for
Hinduism, that all creation is feminine to God, and
therefore, in the words ofjohn Donne, nor ever chaste unless
Thou ravish me. The language of the Song of Songs is as
technical as that of the Gita Govinda, or that of the Fideli
dAmore. The generation of the Son of God is by an act of
fecundation latent in eternity (Eckhart), a vital operation
from a conjoint principle (St Thomas Aquinas); St Bonaventua
speaks of the Exemplary Reasons (Ideas) as conceived in the
vulva or womb of the Eternal Wisdom (in vulva aeternae
sapientiae seu utero)that Wisdom of whom Dante says that
She exists in Him in true and perfect fashion as i f eternally
wedded to Him, and whom he addresses as Virgin Mother,
daughter of thy Son. Mr Andrews sentimentality is essential
ly the same as Miss Mayos and we could pray to be delivered
from our friends as well as from our enemies in this connection.
Both Miss Mayo and Mr Andrews should learn more of
Christiinity before they presume either to malign or to
apologize for Hinduism.
AKC
C. F. Andrews, British educator with life long interest in Indian affairs;
associate of Gandhi, and Vice President of Rabindranath Tagores Santi-
niketan institution.
Katherine Mayo, crusading American author who liked to initiate causes;
best known for her Mother India which Indians viewed with indignation.
Sir J ohn WoodrofFe, British jurist prominent on the Calcutta High Court.
His avocation was the study of the Tantra, and he did more than any other
Anglophone orientalist to expound its underlying principles and signifi
cance. In the earlier part of his writing career, he published under the pen
name A rthur Avalon.
Richard Wilhelm and Carl Gustav J ung, The Secret of the Golden Flower,
L ondon, 1932.
To ERIC GILL
May 23, 1939
Dear Eric:
. . . Talking of sex symbolism, it is wonderful how
Coulton misunderstands and devalues the wonderful Mary
legend which he gives on P 509 of his Five Centuries of Religion.
He misses entirely the tremendous significance of the sacrifice
of ones eyes for the sake of the vision. There is a Vedic parallel,
too, where Wisdom is said to reveal her very body to some.
Perhaps you can print this legend someday, and I could write a
few words of introduction. On the other hand, perhaps the
world does not deserve such things nowadays!
With love from Ananda,
Eric Gill, sec the I ntroduction.
Coulton, George G., Five Centuries of Religion, Vol I, Cambridge, England.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
Sir:
Permit me to say that Mildred Worth Pinkhams book on
Women in the Sacred Scriptures o f Hinduism, recently reviewed in
your issue of September 16th, cannot be very strongly
recommended. I rather agree with a more learned reviewer in
the Journal of the American Oriental Society (1941, p 195), who
says: There are a great many quotations, some of them
interesting, but they neither prove nor indicate anything in
particular. They are not suitable for the use of Hindu women,
nor for scholarly reference, nor are they welded by interpreta
tive comment into any sort of unity, nor is the status of Hindu
women today discussed in relation to these snatches from the
scriptures. The book is one of sustained confusion from
beginning to end . . . . The quotations are all from English
tanslations and provide neither a comprehensive list of refer
ences, nor sufficient context to be very helpful.
There is, of course, an I ndian theory, metaphysical, as to the
natural, and therefore just, relationship of the sexes, interpreted
in terms of sky and eaith, sacerdotium and regnum, mind and
perception, and it is, indeed, in terms of the Liebesgeschichte
Himmels and the relationships of Sun and Moon, that what we
should now call the psychology of sex is set forth. All this
fundamental material, in the light of which alone can the special
applications be understood, is ignored. Neither is it realized
that the whole problem is not merely one of external
relationships, but one of the proper co-ordination of the
masculine and feminine powers in the constitution of everyone,
whether man or woman, that is involved. Neither is it even
hinted that in our ultimate and very Self, these very powers of
essence of nature are One.
AKC
Mildred Worth Pinkham, Women in the Sacred Scriptures of Hinduism,
Columbia University Press, New Y ork, 1941. This unfortunate book began
as a PhD thesis, and reflected only a part of the said thesis, which may help
account for its inadequacies.
To GEORGE SARTON
My dear Sarton:
Many thanks for your note. Spiritual Authority . . .
might come more into your field, not only as having to do with
political science (sociology), but because it deals throughout
with the problem of conflict between the sexes, which is the
same thing as the conflict between the inner and the outer man.
There is, in fact, a traditional psychology that is of immense
practical value and that leads to solutions of the very problems of
disintegrated personality with which we are still concerned.
Kindest regards,
Very sincerely,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government,
Supplement to the Journal of the American Oriental Society, XXI I , 1942.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
Undated
Sir:
Apropos of Mr Porteus review of Peach Path, I suggest he
read Evolas Uomo e Donna in Reuolta contra il Mondo
Moderno. In this book as a whole, Evola mis-states the
traditional theory of the marriage of Church and State. In the
traditional theory of the marriage of the Sacerdotium to the
Regmm, the former is masculine and the latter feminine.
Hitlers and Satans way is, therefore, feminine. The deviation
of the male, ie, clerical side is not so much by fault as by
default.
AKC
J acques Evola, Rivolta contro il Mondo Moderno, Milan, 1934. The chapter in
question was translated by Zlata Llamas (Dona Luisa) Coomaraswamy,
AK Cs wife, and published in the Visvabharati Quarterly, vol V, pt iv, 1940.
To S. DURAI RAJA SINGAM
April 26, 1947
Dear Mr Raja Singam:
Many thanks for your sons letter and the interesting
photographs of yourself and family.
As regards your Selections from my writings, please omit
page 12 (enclosed); page 9 requires some alternation; I have
never placed nationalism above religion. Better omit the
paragraph I have struck out. Also page 11, omit what I have
struck out: I have never been aware of the degrading position
of women in Ceylon society ! ! ! Such ideas would seem quite
nonsense to me.
I expect you have received my book, Am I My Brothers
Keeper? I have no new photographs.
With best wishes,
Y ours sincerely,
S. Durai Raja Singam, Petaling J aya, Malaysia (cf p 30). Mr Singam was
collating a series of quotations from AK Cs published works to be included
in a book of Selections . . . . The section in question here was A K Cs
discussion of temporary marriage in The Dance of Shiva, the chapter on
The Status of Indian Women. The Selections . . . were published in a
limited edition by Mr Singam for private circulation.
Am I My Brothers Keeper?, New Y ork, 1947.
To THE SHIELD, LONDON
J anuary 1911
Sirs:
I write these notes at the request of a friend, but it must be
understood that I have made no special study of the matter,
although I do take a great interest in the status of women both
in East and West. I am personally convinced that the State
Regulation of Vice is altogether degrading and objectionable.
In India very little interest is taken in the State Regulation of
Vice, because it is a purely European institution; it practically
affects only the British Army, and its victims, and most Indians
are probably unaware of the facts. Moreover, the contagious
diseases in question are either of European origin, or at least
have become much more prevalent since intercourse with
Europeans became easier.
There is probably no social culture in which the honour of
women is more jealously guarded than the Hindu; at the same
time, no society is free from the problems of prostitution, and
it is characteristic of Hinduism that a solution very different
from the Western has been sought. This solution lies in the
recognition of the prostitute as a human being. There is no
street solicitation in India, unless it may be in the large towns
where the structure of society has broken down, and modern
conditions prevail. In practice, the dancing girls attached to the
Hindu temples in Southern India, and the professional singers
and dancers generally in other parts of India, are courtesans.
But they are also in the highest sense artists. They are
independent, and sometimes' even wealthy. I do not think they
are ever exploited, as in the White Slave Traffic of Europe. The
most important point to observe, however, is that they nowise
lack self-respectthey have a position in the world, and are
skilled in a refined classic art, the lyric symbolism of which is
essentially religious. The Anti-nautch movement of modern
reformers I regard as fundamentally mistaken, as it merely
degrades the status of the courtesan without in any way
touching the root of the problem.
There is also a very great difference between the Eastern and
Western attitude towards sexual intercourse. On the one hand
the ethic of Hinduism, with its ideals of renunciation, is even
severer than that of Roman Catholic Christianity: on the other,
we have to note that Hinduism embraces and recognizes and
idealizes the whole of life. Thus it is that sex relations can be
treated frankly and simply in religious and poetic literature. In
its highest form, the sex-relation is a sacrament; and even more
secularly regarded, it is rather an art than a mere animal
gratification. All this, and many other things, must be
considered in estimating the status of the Indian courtesan.
The most fundamental idea in Indian religious philosophy is
that of unity. That art thou: every living thing is an
incarnation of the one Self. All living things are bound together
by this unity. Thus, in the most literal sense, In so much as ye
have done it unto these, ye have done it unto Me. Further, In
as much as ye have done it unto Me, ye have done it to
yourselvesand how shall ye not pay the price? For next to
this intution of unity is the doctrine of karmathe incvitablc-
ness of the consequences of actions. As surely as any individual
or society degrades or enslaves any other, so surely that
degradation will react upon themselves. State Regulation is one
of the many modern attempts to escape the consequences of
actions. But this is not possible: in one form or another the
price must be paid, and is paid. State Regulation is an attempt
to protect men (and indirectly some of those women who
belong to the already economically protected class); it not only
docs not protect, but it degrades those women against whom
society has already offended economically and spiritually.
Some of these women have been betrayedthat is to say, they
have given for love to those who have deceived them what it is
quite respectable to sell for a home and a legal guarantee.
Others have been driven by pure economic stress, the need for
bread. Some have been coerced. In India conditions arc
somewhat differentcourtesans arc generally the daughters of
courtesans. In Southern India some others arc of those who arc
dedicated in infancy to a temple, as devadasis or servants of the
god. I cannot say whether all devadasis arc also courtesansthe
majority certainly.
No society can purify itself physically or spiritually by
further offending against such as these. What is needed is to
raise the status of women, to honour motherhood in reality and
not in name merely; and to feel responsibility. A society which
by its conventions or its economic structure forces certain
women into this position has for its first duty to protect them,
not those who have offended against them. To fail in this duty
can but increase the evil.
No society, as I have remarked, has ever been free from the
problem of prostitution. I think that the evil has been least evil
where, as in India, the recognized standards of life are
exceedingly high; and where at the same time the courtesan is
protected by her defined social or religious status and her own
culture. There is no doubt that under such conditions, spiritual
degradation and physical disease must have been reduced to a
minimum. Where, on the other hand, the courtesan is treated as
an outcastc, scarcely even as a human being, the reverse result
must follow.
1may, however, suggest that care should be taken to avoid
language which betrays a missionary or sectarian bias (such as
appears here and there in the Queenss Daughters in India). I
will refer only to one other pointthe relation of the matter to
police activity. State Regulation involves the registration of
prostitutes, and this opens the door to blackmail and all kinds
of abuse. It is most undesirable that any power of this sort be
placed in the hands of the I ndian police.
AKC
The Shield, the official organ of the British Committee of the I nternational
Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice, 17 Tothill Street,
Westminster SW, L ondon, England; J anuary 1911.
To DONA LUISA COOMARASWAMY
May 15, 1932
Darling:
. . . As to virginity, of the Matrona (rata vuvatih): there are
several ways of looking at it. In the first place, you know,
whatever is given out or emanated (srsti, etc) by the pleroma
(puma) cannot diminish what is infinite (aditi). She is naturally
in every sense inviolable. Neither is he really but only logically
disintegrated (vy asrusakd, etc. by the act of fecundation, for the
same reason. Lateral birth: for one reason because the branches
of a tree grow out sideways, like the arms of the cross,
implying extension into timespace. Also, in a quite literal sense,
Caesarian birth implies virginity. Thirdly, this is one way of
saying that the eternal mother dies, or is slain by the birth
of the Son. It is for this reason Maya, mother of Buddha dies, as
one can see by comparing with the Indra nativity in R V IV, 18,
1-2 cf V, 2, 1-2: Indra in fact destroys the womb (yonim
aibhidya) lest there should be any but an only Son of God. She
who lives is the human counterpart of the eternal mother. In
Christianity the eternal mother is the divine nature by which
the Father begets, the temporal mother Mary, from whom the
Son takes on human nature. These arc also the two lotuses of
the upper and nether waters, the lotus of the nether waters
representing the ground of actual existence, the deck of the ship
of life. The doctrine of a temporal and eternal birth of Christ is
orthodox (Thomist).
On being bound to the stake (yuba = vanaspati = tree =
cross) see also the case of Nrmadha (= Purusa medha, human
sacrifice) in Jaiminiya Brahmana, II, 17, 1. By the way, in
connection with the extraordinary consistency which we have
recognized in traditional scriptures: this consistency is really
that infallibility which in Christian tradition is attributed to
the Pope only, but as Guenon remarks should be the attribute
of every initiate through whom the doctrine is transmit
ted . . . .
. . . Observe the likeness of the idea of sacrifice in Vcdic and
Hebrew tradition. In the Zohar, The impulse of the sacrifice is
the mainstay of the worlds and the blessing of all worlds. By it
the lamp is kindled above (ie, the Sun is made to rise). Again
as to nabha as starting pointWhen the world was created, it
was started from that spot which is the culmination and
perfection of the world, the central point of the universe, which
is identical with Zion, citing Psalms 2, 2: Out of Zion, the
perfection of beauty, God hath shined forth.
To go back to your question about food: Gandhis the only
acceptable form in which God can dare appear to a people
famishing and idle (asanayita, auratal) is work and promise of
food as wages is true in principio and metaphysically: those in
potentia (ante natal hell) arc precisely famishing and idle. That
is of coursc karma katida stuff. From the jnana kanda point of
view, the last end being the same as the first beginning,
idleness (properly understood, viz, action without action is
the principle of action, as in BG) is the goal, but in the.
meantime food is necessary to operation: to the final view is
illustrated in fasting as a metaphysicalnot religiousrite, ie, in
initiation of mrtyu, asandya, cf Br Up I, 1, 2............
Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy, A K Cs wife, was, at the time this letter was
written, in India studying Sanskrit.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
September 15, 1910
Dear Rothenstein:
It was good to hear from you, August 28, and will be still
better to see you so soon. As I told Mrs H. . . , I am engaging
tent accommodation from 5.10 at Camp, Exhibition, personal
ly for 2 men and 3 ladies subject to confirmation by Mrs
H. . . when she arrives in Bombay.
It has been a hot time but very interesting travelling about
the last 3 months. I have collected many good pictures and
stayed with many dear and beautiful Indians. There is nothing
like the peace and stillness of the real ones. I can give you letters
to some, especially Benares and Calcutta. But I also strongly
recommend a visit to Lucknow to see dancing there. A boy of
15, pupil of Indias most famous dancer, is so beautiful and so
static. These conventional gesture dances, symbolizing all
religion in a Radha-Krishna archon-language are the most
wonderful things in the world, all have the quality of Hindi
poetry. This is so wonderfully trenchant: when we loved, the
edge of the sword was too wide for us to lie on, but now a sixty
foot bed is too narrow. Another song says with exquisite
absurdity: Had I known that love brings pain, I must have
proclaimed with beat of drum that none should love. How
many philosophers have proclaimed that all sorrow is wound
up with desire, and how futile save for the few that escape,
like electrons from an atom, these proclamations by beat of
drum.
I cannot make my home in England anymore for a time.
After a year in Europe next year I shall live here most of the
time for 10 years. My wife is going back earlier than we
expected for various reasons, mostly connected with this, and I
shall let the chapel next year and she will build a little cottage by
the sea at S. . . [probably Staunton, but illegible], I dont know
yet if she will be out here much with me or not. We have got on
very well living in purely Indian fashion so far.
I wonder if you will go so far as LahoreI expect not. Y ou,
too, ought to be here for years. I have never felt the land so
much before. I feel the intense thinness of English life in
contrast. There is such a deep emotional and philosophical
religious background to all this. There is, or in the ideal life at
least, there is not any meaningless activity.
Learn all the Hindustani you can. It is really easy. Especially
pronounce all vowels as continental and learn to pronounce
consonants after. Forbes Hindustani Manual (Crosby Lock
wood, 3/6) is good.
I dont think youll get much out of Monica Williams. The
Bhagavad Gita is the first thing. Then Laws of Matiu, Tiruvacha-
kam, and such books. But this will not reach you in time, and
anyhow you will find it easier to read up the matter after youve
been here than now.
When in Bombay, drive through the Marwari bazaar. There
is very little else to sec in the place, comparatively speaking.
Y ou ought to sec Agra for the architecture, but can very well
omit Delhi.
Y ours,
William Rothenstein, see p. 326.
Monica Williams is not identified.
The Chapel refers to Norman Chapel, Broad Campden, Glostershire,
England, where AK C had lived and where he owned William Morris
K elmscott Press, now a National Monument.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
Date uncertain
Dear Rothenstein:
Please post me the Himhar (?) print to Campden. I am afraid
you must have been disappointed last night. I had not heard
him sing before. However, the hymn have a little idea. The
following is a translation:
Unknowable, abiding in the thought of Brahmans, rare one,
Veda-Essence, atom unknown to any, who art honey, who
art milk, who art a shining beam, Lord of the devas,
inseparably mingled in the dark Vishnu, in the four-headed
Brahma, in the fire, in the wind, in the sounding ocean, in
the mightly mountains, who are great and rare and precious,
dwelling in Tiger-town (Chidambaram, a sacred town in
South India)vain arc all the days when thy Name is not
spoken.
Is it not grand to know that men can sing this passionately? I
return to Campden Saturday, and shall not be up again for ten
days after that.
Y ours very sincerely,
To William Rothenstein, as above.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
October 10, 1910
Dear Rothenstein:
I shall probably just have time to see you in Bombay on 27th,
as I am passing through after a tour in Rajputana. Y ou must
really go to J aipur to see thc people. The whole country is full of
beauty and romance, so different from the British parts. I
should almost recommend a night or a few hours at Ajmere to
see the marble pavillions on the edge of the lake. Shah J ahan
must have been a supreme artisteverything he had to do with
is marvellous, and his reign marks the zenith of Mughal art.
I find the indegcnous element in this art even larger than I
surmised, and the Persian element very much smaller. People
have a mania for thinking that everything comes from
somewhere else than where you find it. I am beginning to see
that the best things arc always well rooted in the soil. I have got
hold of a magnificent lot of old Rajput cartoons and tracings of
miniaturesI cant tell you how beautiful some of them are.
Most arc 18th century, and the best may have been earlier than
that; even so, one can only think of Boticelli as giving an idea of
one or two. This Hindu or Rajput art is the descendant of
Ajanta, its rise and zenith and decline seems to cover at least 1500
years.. The 200 years of secular Mughal art is but a breath beside
it.
This is a beautiful Rajput city on a lake. I have been over the
Palace, pure white marble. No furniture at all in the Rajas
apartments. How different the old idea of luxury. We have no
conception now of what luxury can bewe know only
comfort. It seems to me we have lost in nothing more than in
our idea of pleasure.
Y ou will find me alone. My wife had to go home on certain
family affairs, and the question of economy also had to be
considered. I have been spending more than all my possessions
on pictures. I expect we shall make great changes. I feel I must
be out here more and also when in England more in London,
etc. So we are going to let the Chapel for 5 or 7 years and build
a cottage at Staunton by the sea near Barnstaple and have that
for a country house instead. It is a great wrench, but I think
must be for the present.
It will be good to see you at Allahabad. Y ou will have to help
me judge some pictures, etc. I suppose you will come about
J anuary 5-10 or thereabouts.
When in Bombay the only thing of interest is to drive
through the Marwari Bazaar. I will see you soon after arrival
however.
Y ours,
William Rothenstein, as above.
See note on page 371 as regards the Chapel.
AK C had been travelling in Rajputana (modern Rajasthan), amassing the
magnificent collection of Rajput paintings which first propelled him into
prominence in the art world. He was an official at the All-India Exhibition
held at Allahabad in 1910.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
J anuary 22, 1911
Dear Rothenstein:
As per your wire, expect you here 24th at midday. Shall send
servant to station to bring you here. We shall go to see Miss
Fyzcc same afternoon as she is leaving next day.
Enclosed may help to explain the pictures here. I am very
sorry when I wrote the two big books I did not quite realise the
relative importance of the Rajput school. Now I sec it is really
the great thing and the other in spite of its wonderful and
beautiful qualities, lesser. I did not want to say this then, either
because it might seem (and unfortunately even now may seem)
Hindu prejudice. However, I am quite sure of it and the
conviction has grown quite slowly and surely with me.
Looking forward to seeing you. I have very much to talk of and
am very sad.
Y ours,
William Rothenstein, as above.
The two big books were presumably A K Cs Indian Drawings, 1910 and a
second series issued under the same title in 1912. The other is presumably
Mughal painting which, until A K Cs discovery of Rajput paintings, was
considered the summit of Indian pictorial art.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
December 29, 1914
Dear Rothenstein:
Thanks for your two notes. I quite agree that criticism and
appreciation are not a permanent compensation for creation.
However, the Lord made critics as well as artists, I suppose:
and they feel bound to get justice done for the works that have
touched them most. This necessity which they feel may be the
means of creating beauty in their own work.
The more austere Indian poetry which is at the same time
fully poetical would be found, I take it, in the Saiva and Sakta
hymns. I would gladly work at these i f I could find a suitable
collaborator. However, I think it is still very necessary to
present the typical Vaisnava work. Even the Manchester
Guardian declared last year that Tagore was the first Indian poet
to love life and believe in physical beauty! It is a natural
transition for me from the Vaisnava paintings to the Vaisnava
literature, and I shall probably do more of it. I have in hand a
very big work on Rajput-Painting which it is almost settled will
be published by Clarendon Press. In this connection, if you
have any new important Rajput paintings which I could see, or
photos of them, I should be very pleased, as the very last
subjects are just going in for reproduction now.
I wish there was any chance of having a good museum in
India. I f they would only ask me to undertake itperhaps at
DelhiI should feel I had got one or two things I really could
do well. I also regret there is no place to which I can present or
bequeath my own collection. The other sort of work I should
like would be to be a Professor of I ndian at a Western
Universitybut that idea would seem absurdly fanciful to
most people.
Meanwhile I have also undertaken a book on Buddha and
Buddhism for Harrap. I regret that some of Tagores Buddhist
pictures (which I think really very bad) will be used again in
this; however, it cant be helped.
Y ours very sincerely,
PS: Do you think Kabir is genuinely lyrical, or good only for
his ideas?
Rajput Painting (see I ntroduction), Clarendon Press, London, 1916. Repub
lished in 1975.
Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism, London, 1916; there have been at least two
more recent editions. See Bibliography.
Kabir was a 14/15th century bhakti poet; a number of his poems were
translated by Rabindranath Tagore and published as One Hundred Poems of
Kabir, L ondon, 1915.
The Tagore referred to in the last paragraph of the letter was Abanindranath
Tagore of the Calcutta school and uncle of the better known Rabindranath.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN
J anuary 5, 1915
Dear Rothenstein:
I am very glad to have the Kabir translations. They seem to
me to be much more authentic than Rabindranath. Y ou know,
of course, Westcotts book on Kabir and the Kabir Panth. I dont
think it is at all certain that Kabir is a Moslem namethere arc
several Hindi poets named Kaviraj, Kabirai, etc.
I forgot to say Vishnu did not care for English housework
and I suppose felt homesick, so we had to send him homemuch
to our regret, partly as we had of course to pay his fare both
ways without having him long. With regard to Vidyapati, I
should like to add to what I said before, that I think that sort of
literature is of value to modern Europe quite apart from the
mysticismas an education in love: also to remind us that
Muhammad could have been perfectly sincere when he said
Three things he had loved, Perfume, Women and Prayer, but
the last most! Kabir is a prophet. But Vidyapati is an artist and
seems to me to carry out the Kabir doctrine of seeing the
physical and spiritual as one thing.
I think 7/6 is a good price to charge for the Kabir volume. By
the way, it is a pity that they dont have a committee to elect
members. I proposed several in the autumn, and by not electing
them we have already lost one years subscription.
Y ours sincerely,
William Rothenstein, as above.
To WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN . . . . . ln0/1
March 14, 1924
My dear Rothenstein:
I was very pleased to hear from you. We have here the largest
series of photographs of Indian architecture and sculpture in the
world, I believe, but of course these are only available for study
here. I have thought of various large books on Indian art to be
done some day, but I am not ready yetthere is much ground
to be cleared. Meanwhile I will get prints made of a dozen or so
of the photographs most likely to suit you, and send them on. I
shall have to ask for $85 each, but no doubt the publishers
will attend to this. No doubt, too, you will get such material
from the Archeological Survey negatives. J ohnston and Hoff
man also have some good ones. Anyhow, you may expect
some from me in a few weeks. Is there anything in the Museum
you are likely to need, I wonder? By the way, I am sending you
my little new Introduction to Indian Art. I f you review it
somewhere . . . so much the better.
I am fairly well settled here. I have been once to India Qapan,
J ava, Cambodia) and expect to go again soon. I like America,
especially the open country, and go fishing in Maine every
summer. I have been riding and fishing in the wild West, too,
and like that still better.
I learnt of Arunachalams death the same day your letter
came.
I have taken up photography pretty thoroughly. In this
connection, I have come to know and greatly admire Alfred
Steiglitz and have been the means of incorporating 27 of his
photographs in our Print Department. Yes, on the whole I have
the life I like best (of what one can reasonably expect) here.
Perhaps I would prefer an endowment enabling me to spend 10
years studying and photographing the Oriental Theatre! I have
allowed myself to be divorced and have married a very
beautiful and distinguished girl who amongst other things is
familiar with J avanese dancing. Most of my books are out of
print: but I have still much to saygrowing more and more
inclined to exact study rather than appreciation. I am deeply
interested in old Hindi and work much at it, especially of late at
the unpublished poems describing the Ragas and Raginis.
I f sometime we get to London I should be glad to give a few
lectures including some in which the main part would be an
exposition of J avanese dance. By the way, I prepared a
translation of Sety velds DeJavaaniche Daniskunst and believe he
has been in correspondence with the I. S. regarding publication
but have heard nothing definite.
Alice is in New Y ork. Rohini in Philadelphia, Narada still in
England. Phave heard of and am glad of Simmonds success
well deserved indeed.
I do -not know anything of Codrington (unless he be
ex-Ceylon Civil Service) and hope he will become a serious
I ndianist. There is so much to be learnt still.
I must closefor in response to your enquiries I seem to have
written all about myself. With kindest regards to you and
Mrs Rothenstein.
Very sincerely,
William Rothenstein, as above.
Setyveld, De Jevaaniche Daniskunst; neither the author or the title could be
further identified from the National Union Catalog.
Introduction to Indian Art, Madras, 1923.
The marriage referred to was to Stella Bloch, AK Cs third wife. Alice refers
to his second wife, and Rohini and Narada to the children by that marriage.
Narada is deceased. Rohini Coomara is a professional musician and teaches
cello in Mexico.
Simmond is not identified.
Codrington, presumably Kenneth de Burgh Codrington of the Ceylon Civil
Service who later became an art historian.
To ART NEWS . . . 1fln
May-August 1939
Dear Madam:
Y ou have kindly asked whether 1should care to deal with the
questions asked in your issue of March-April 1939. I find it
very difficult to grasp their drift, and can only take them one by
one.
Geometry and algebra are abstract arts in that they do not
represent phenomena as such, but the forms on which
phenomena are built (forms in the sense that the soul is the
form of the body). A religious art is necessarily abstract
because its thesis is the invisible things of God which can be
represented in a likeness only by analogy, that is to say, by
means of symbols. Symbolism is the representation of the
reality of one order by the analogous reality of another order.
There are degrees of abstraction: an anthropomorphic symbol
ism is unsuited, as St Thomas Aquinas remarks, to those who
can think of nothing nobler than bodies. I f the artist uses
models, it is as the material and not the essence of his art: i f he
uses them for their own sake and not merely as words are used
to communicate a thesis, he is no longer an artist but only an
illustrator. In the latter case, the free contemplative act of
imagination having been omitted, only the servile operation
remains; the same holds good for the archaist and the
academician, or any mere imitator of styles for their own sake.
Abstraction belongs to the very nature of art: an abstract art is
wrong only when an abstract style is imitated for the sake of
effect. We must not say, Go to now, let us work abstractly:
abstraction is necessitated by the artists theme, or not at all.
I hardly know what can be meant by a reaction to ideas of
the past century. What has truth to do with centuries? The
only upright and consistent theory of art that I know of belongs
to no one man, or time, or place, or form of faith: but there are
times, and notably our own, which cover more than one past
century, when it has been forgotten.
Who has said that art is only self-analytic, or even
analytic in any sense? This is, perhaps, the modern view of
art. I cannot see a connection between self-analytic and
abstract art; this would be to be at the same time a nominalist
and a realist, egoist and In the spirit.
The artist making a study of aesthetic laws and the
psychologist thinking about thought (the operations of that
psyche of which Christ has said, No man can be my disciple
but and if he hate it!) are hardly comparable. Both are artists if
they write or speak well what they have to say. The artist,
maker of things by art, is not supposed to think, but to know; to
be in possession of his art as the engineer is in possession of his
science. Ars sine scientia nihil; aesthetic laws can only men
this scientia, with respect to which St Thomas Aqunas has
remarked that Art has fixed ends and ascertained means of
operation. Thinking has to do with opinions, rather than with
science. The artist entertains ideas: the psychologist forms
opinions.
I agree that a communication of sacred truths through
visual interpretation is most desirable, though it is by no
means only a question of visual arts, but of all those which
appeal to what St Thomas Aquinas calls the most cognitive
senses, ie, eye and ear. That it should be necessary to speak at
all of the desirability of communicating sacred truths through
art is a confession of departure from the order to the end, and
proof that we cannot compromise with the aesthetic view of
artaesthetic being the equivalent of materialistic, in
asmuch as aisthesis means sensation, and matter is that which
can be sensed. All traditional art, from the Stone Age until
now (when this can hardly be said of any but folk arts and the
arts of savages) is at the same time functional and significant
of the invisible things of God; that we have divorced function
from meaning, discovering that man (as we conceive him) can
after all live by bread alone, is proof that our conception of man
is no longer that of a whole or holy man, but of a divided
personality. It is not to be wondered that artists such as Eric
Gill have been driven to put down the hammer and take up the
pen; for although we are convinced that the visual arts have
only aesthetic values, we have not yet fully surrendered to the
view that words are only charming sounds.
AKC
To S. DURAI RAJA SINGAM
J uly 21, 1947
Dear Raja Singam:
I think you had better use the article on art as it is, with
correction of spelling and punctuation in a few places. I f you
wish, you can also quote me as follows:
On the last page it is a pity that Sanjiva Dev uses the word
aestheticism because this word, like aesthete, has always a bad
meaning, which the words aesthetic, aesthetics, aesthetician do
not necessarily have. So it is not true that I consider
Aestheticism to be the sine qua non in the daily life of man.
What I say is what Ruskin said, that I ndustry without art is
brutality or, as St Thomas Aquinas expressed it, There can
be no good uses without art. In his capacity as Creator, God is
the archetype of the human artist as manufacturer; which is
what is meant when art is called an imitation of nature in her
manner of operation, ie, of the Divine Nature. Bharatan
K umarappas understanding of the place of art in human
lifestated in his wise and splendid book, Capitalism, Socialism
or Villagismis far deeper than Gandhi-jis, who is too ready to
give expression to his own feelings on a matter on which he
really knows almost nothing.
Very sincerely,
S. Durai Raja Singam, as on page 25.
Bharatan K umarappa, Capitalism, Socialism or Villagism, Madras, 1946.
Sanjiva Dev, unidentified.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
Sir:
Apropos of Mr Douglas Newtons article in your issue of
November 1st, I should like to point out that art is like
God, precisely in this respect, that it cannot be seen; all that
we can see is things made by art, and hence properly called
artifacts, and these arc analogous to those effects, which are all
that we can see of God. The art remains in the artist, regardless
of the vicissitudes to which his works are subject; and I protest
against the serious use of the term art by a writer who really
means works of art.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
February 3, 1941
Sir:
In connection with Mr Vivas review of Professor Colling-
woods The Principles of Art in your issue for J anuary 21, kindly
allow me to point out that the formula Art is expression by
no means necessarily implies expression of emotion. In the
traditional aesthetic, art has to do with cognition, and is the
expression, not primarily of emotion, but of a thesis; nor can
we judge of a work of art without first knowing what it was
that was to be expressed. From this point of view a well-made
table and an elegant equation are really works of art: a work
of art in which ornament exceeds the bounds of responsibility
to its burden is called a sophistry; and the beauty of the work
is the attractive aspect of its meaning or utility, and commensu
rate with the perfection of the expression of its purpose.
I f works of art are colored by emotion and in turn moving, it
is because they are brought into being not only per artem, but
also ex uoluntate. In other words, although on the one hand ars
sine scientia nihil, it is also true that mens sine desiderio non intelligit
(a truth that many objective scholars would do well to take
to heart).
Mr Vivas whole discussion takes for granted a proposition
(Art is the expression of emotion) which very many of those
who agree that art is expression could not accept; for these,
historically the great majority, art is the expression of a thesis. I
conclude with Quintillains Docti rationem componendi intelligunt
etiam indocti voluptatem.
AKC
To ADE DE BETHUNE
J uly 26, 1943
Dear Miss Bethune:
Many thanks. I would like to keep the article. I was for a
moment surprised by Maria as Jama Coeli (since Christs words
are, 1am the door): but at once remembered that both Sun
and Moon arc the doors and no doubt it is in her lunar aspect
Maria is the door.*
By the way I do not think love of truth for truths sake and
beauty for beautys sake (top of p 370 in the same issue of Orate
Fratres) is sound Christian doctrinewhich is that it is beauty
which summons us to be good (and true)and is therefore not
an end in itself; while truth is to be sought in as much as the
truth shall make you free. I cannot see that any manifested
value ought to be pursued for its own sake, but only as a
pointer to an end beyond itself.
Very sincerely,
* I t would seem that here Dr Coomaraswamy was thinking primarily of the
symbolism of Mary in her role as human mother of the incarnate Word. But
Marian symbolism is both much broader and deeper than this considered in
isolation; it involves, eg, the act of fecundation latent in eternity, a phrase
of Eckhart which AK C quoted from time to time and which places Marian
symbolism squarely in divinisto which Dante alluded in his seemingly
enigmatic address: Virgin Mother, daughter of Thy Son. The human role
of Mary implies an archetypal Principle, without which it would be
inconceivableliterally. Dr Coomaraswamy himself made these points in
other contexts.
Adc De Bethune, Newport, Rhode Island, USA; artist and author.
Orate Fratres was a Catholic journal devoted primarily to liturgical art; the
name was changed later to Worship.
To ADE DE BETHUNE
November 22, 1939
Dear Miss Bethune:
I have a rule against lending any books; primarily because
mine is a reference library, containing only books I am apt to
need at any time. However, I break it to send the pamphlets
you refer to, if you will return them within ten days.
1think you ought to go into the matter a little more deeply. I
dont think all the writers treat it from a profane point of view.
It is of course an error to suppose that people are being asked to
sacrifice something real in returning to severer forms, all that is
real exists in these eminently, although with less human appeal.
Y ou arc quite right about emotion. Movere as a purpose of
art originally meant to impel to corresponding action, not the
inducing of feelings. Christian art after the 13th century
gradually substitutes feeling for knowledge as the thesis (see
summary of Brehiers remarks, quoted in my Traditional
Conception of Ideal Portraiture in the current issue of
Twice-a- Year.
In plainchant there is no climax (characteristic also of
religious music elsewhere): it is not imposing (because a rite
before a ceremony): it does not represent violence of action.
These arc also characteristics of Romanesque [as distinct] from
Gothic: Gothic being a decadence, a step on the way to the
pathos and sentimentality of modern Christianity in whichin
accordance with our inversion of the superiority of contempla
tion to actionethics has become the end instead of the means
of religion. The revolt of kings (against the Church), artists
(against patrons), woman (against man) are all aspects of one
and the same tendency.
I think you should own A Robertson, The Interpretation of
Plainchant, Oxford, 1937 (sec p 106, parallel with Byzantine
plastic arts): and probably also Gastouc, L Art Gregorien and
L Eglise et la musique. Cccil Gray, History of Music, has a good
section on Plainchant. St Augustines De Musica is important;
see J . Hure, Augustin tnusicien, 1924.
I think also Glcizes, Vers une connaissance plastique: la forme et
Vhistoire.
I must say your own handwriting makes a handsome page!
Very sincerely,
PS: My article referred to above may be said to explain lack of
expression in religious art, ie, lack of expression of human
emotions, which lack is not a privation but a serenity and
attitude of the kind that are implied in the phrase serene
highness.
Ade De Bethunc, as above.
The Traditional Conception of Ideal Portraiture, Journal of the Indian
Society of Oriental Art, VII, 1939; also in Twice-a-Year, IIIV, 1939-40; also
in Why Exhibit Works o f Art? London, 1943 (this was reprinted as Christian
and Oriental Philosophy o f Art, New Y ork, 1956).
A Robertson, The Interpretation of Plainchant, Oxford, 1937.
Amede Gastoue, L art gregorien and L Eglise et la musique, Paris, 1936.
Cecil Gray, History of Music, 1928 and 1935, New Y ork.
Albert Gleizes, Vers une conscience plastique: la forme et Vhistoire.
To GEORGE SARTON
March 12, 1946
Dear George Sarton:
Thanks for the article on portraits. I daresay you know that
Indian (incl. Cambodian, etc) portrait statues are not
intended to be likenesses. Cf The Traditional Conception
of Ideal Portraiture in my Why Exhibit Works of Art?, 1943, Ch
VII . . . : cf Bonaventura In Hexiamem, col 12 n q: melius videbo
me in Deo quam in me ipso.
AKC
Walt Whitman, my . . . looks . . . are not me, myself.
George Sarton, page 13.
This was a handwritten postcard.
To A. PHILIP MCMAHON
November 9, 1938
Dear Professor McMahon:
I take it for granted that you read my Mediaeval Aesthetic
II in March Art Bulletin. I have no views of my own to
propound, but those which I have made my own include:
Art is that norm by which things arc made correctly (just as
prudence is that norm by which things are done correctly), and
after which they are called artifacts or works of art. There
can be an industry without art, but hardly absolutely. Art and
beauty arc not the same thing logically. Beauty is the attractive
aspect of perfection; perfection is the makers intention. The
work of art is always occasional; beauty in any thing can only
be a beauty in kind. Beauty is objective and does not depend on
the spectator for its existence, but only for its recognition.
There is no distinction in principle between natural and
artificial, or physical and spiritual beauty. Beauty has nothing
to do with taste. Beauty is not the same thing as aptitude, but
cannot be apart from it; the converse docs not hold, unless we
mean by aptitude, a total propriety. What is beautiful in a given
context may not appear to be so, ic, will be less attractive in
another.
In application to your second paragraph: art and beauty are
not the same thing, but should coincide in the artist, and must
coincide if he has envisaged the work to be done correctly. The
work of art can hardly ever be as beautiful as the art by which it
was made, the degree of approximation depending on the
receptivity of the material and the extent of the artists manual
skill. The work of art is always as beautiful as it ever was, in its
original relations: but this beauty may be imperceptible to a
spectator who cannot put back, let us say, the museum object,
into its original context. I f it is damaged, it is less beautiful
(though we may like it better) than before, in the same sense
that a one-legged man is by so much less a perfect man, by so
much less than what he ought to be.
Art and aesthetic arc totally different things. Art is
(1) functional and (2) communicative. In all normal art these
two arc inseparable aspccts, though one may predominate. In
Sanskrit the one word artha denotes both value and meaning.
The idea of a function without meaning or meaning without
value (typically modern as it may be) is the symptom of a
divided personality. In such works of art as pics, the aesthetic
aspect may predominate; but for the whole or metaphysical
man is not exclusive even in such cases. Any work of art may
produce sensations, pleasant or unpleasant, at different times
and for different people. These sensations, as such, are simply
reactions or passions, to be distinguished from life as an act.
(Aristotle, actis intellectus est vita, ie, vital operation as St
Thomas Aquinas interprets vita here). My own interest is
primarily in the art, and only secondarily in the sensations it
may evoke. I cannot imagine what interest such sensations,
evoked in me by a work of art, or anything else, can have for
other people. On the other hand, the intellectual pleasure
derived from understanding a work of art is (1) not a
ims-action and (2) should be the same for all, and therefore of
interest to all. I do not like the definition of art with which you
conclude paragraph 2 on p 7.
Professor Dicz just wrote me regarding my Symbolism of
the Dome (I H Q , XIV, 1938) (of which I send you a copy,
which please return): It is exactly the attitude towards art that
warms my heart.
I f this is any help, I shall be glad; i f not, please provoke me to
further comment.
Very sincerely,
A. Philip McMahon, Secretary of the College Art Association, publishers of
the Art Bulletin and Parnassus.
Symbolism of the Dome, Indian Historical Quarterly, XI V, 1938.
Professor Diez is not identified.
A paragraph from Professor McMahons reply is given below in order to
clarify the two following letters:
The problem before us as guides and interpreters of such objects (of art) is
to acknowledge that all the contemporary classification called art really
guarantees is patterns of sensation produced by a technique connected
with drawing. Significance and value are discovered in such a work by a
mind directed to it. Its proper meanings do not flow from the principles
upon which the classification is established. These meanings have to be
ascertained and in only a relatively few such objects may we expect to
grasp them immediately and without a conscious effort.
AK Cs answer follows:
To A PHILIP MCMAHON
November 14, 1938
Dear Professor McMahon:
Many thanks for your letter. I know and revere of course
Plotinus, but also have great admiration for the theory of art as
formulated by the Latin fathers (Augustine, Bonaventura,
Thomas, Eckhart, etc) and think it desirable to use these in
connection with the interpretation of Mediaeval Art as such. I
am in most thorough agreement with your last paragraph,
which seems to me a most devastating criticism of our methods
of teaching art. My point was that the aesthetic view of art
is by definition a superficial one and our notion of beauty
only skin deep.
Very sincerely,
A Philip McMahon, as above.
To THE EDITOR OF PARNASSUS
Date not given
Dear Sir:
In Professor McMahons very interesting and suggestive
discussion of Platos views on art, he remarks that Plato
approved of the fixed types of the Egyptian gods, but rejected
the painters and sculptors who produced likenesses or worked
according to their own imagining, thus ruling out the whole
concept of the creative imagination, on which modern criticism
places so much emphasis. In other words, Plato endorses a
certain kind of art: in effect, the art of those who employed the
adequate symbolism of Plotinus, or dipicted what Scholastic
theory describes as angelic images, viz, the ideas of things by
which, as St Augustine says, we arc enabled to judge of what
they ought to be like. I can see nothing different in Platos
point of view from that maintained in the Indian and mediaeval
philosophies of art; according to the former, portraiture,
empirical observation, and the representation of what sticks to
the heart (ie, the art that corresponds to the expression I
know what I like) arc condemned as not leading to heaven,
while according to the latter, art has fixed purposes and
ascertained means of operation. Nor would it be any exaggera
tion to say that the actus primus of the Egyptian, Indian or
mediaeval artist implied an accomplishment in mathematics
and a dialectic; for Christian symbolism, as Male expresses it,
is a calculus; and even if in some cases the workman
performing the actus secundus reproduced the traditional forms
without a full comprehension of their significance, this in no
way affects the nature of the art but only divides it between two
persons, the one free and the other servile, in the
mediaeval sense.
Now, as to creative imagination; what the modern critic
generally means by this phrase is an idealisation, essentially a
creature image or phantasm, but improved according to
the artists private notion of what things ought to be like; this
has nothing to do with ideas, and from the older point of
view is an entirely false concept of creative imagination. This
expression would have meant originally, and certainly in the
Middle Ages and in India, not a creation of new forms, but the
in-vention (finding out, coming upon, discovery) of the forms,
ideas, or eternal reasons that arc creative in their own right and
by the mere fact of their being. Such invention depends upon
internal vision, mediaeval contemplatio, Indian dhyana, certainly
not on observation or deliberate improvement, nor merely
an abstraction. Mediaeval and Indian theory regarded the artist
as creative in a very profound sensein fact, as like God in so
far as he embodied ideas in material (similitude is with respect
to the form), the main distinction being not as regards the
nature of the actus primus, but in the human artists necessary
recourse to an actus secundus. According to this theory, art in
its manner of operation imitates nature; not, of course nature
in the sense of environment, natura naturata, but natura
naturans, Creatrix, Deus. The so-called creative imagination
of the modern critic is then a phrase that merely refers to the
artists representation of something more conformable to his
taste than what is actually present in the environment; creative
art is not a mode of understanding, but only an escape. A
creative art of this kind by no means corresponds to the
vision of ideas or creative principles that is represented in the
ancient gods; which as Blake remarked, were mathematical
diagrams, or as they are called in India, yantras, that is
devices, and intended to be used as supports of a contempla
tive act in which the critic, seeing the work of art, the
accidental form, as starting point, recovers the idea expressed in
it. J udgement, from this point of view, is defined in terms of
the relation between the actual form of the material work and
its essential form as it existed in the mind of the artist, whose
manner of operation was per verbum in intellectu conceptum. Plato
is indeed actively hostile to what we now mean by art. On
the one hand, this view when set in a larger historical and
geographical perspective takes on a very dated and provincial
aspect, while Platos view appears to be that which humanity
for the most part has endorsed.
AKC
Editors note: The following scries of letters on the True Philosophy of A rt
were occasioned by a review in the New English Weekly, L ondon 11 J uly
1940, of A K Cs booklet. The Christian and Oriental, or True, Philosophy of
Art, published in 1939 at Newport, Rhode Island. See Bibliography.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
Ocrober 3, 1940
Sir:
I appreciate Mr Herbert Reads discussion of my . . . True
Philosophy of Art (in your issue of J uly 11). As to the bomb, I
agree that I ought not to have said it is only bad as a work of
art i f it fails, etc. The statement is too elliptical. It seems to
ignore the basic thesis that in valid art, function and significance
would be only logically but not really separable. I fully agree
that a bomb can be beautiful (a tin can filled with the necessary
ingredients may be efficient, but it is not beautiful): this beauty
will be an expression of the will to destroy, and like the beauty
of any other work of art, will be an invitation to use. 1cannot
agree that the thesis of the bomb is purely ballistic: that is its
function, not its thesis. Its thesis pertains to the art and
philosophy of warfare, and is ultimately metaphysical; in this
respect we cannot distinguish the bomb from any other
weapon such as the sword or the arrow, which I have shown
elsewhere are the material analogues of spiritual forces; the
knight no more fights with a mere sword than he lives by bread
alone. Nor has the bombs efficiency any ethical quality: it is
made efficient, not by prudence, but by art; the ethical question
is whether or not to make a bomb at all, and when this has been
decided the adequacy of the bomb becomes the concern of the
artist, whose only preoccupation is with the good of the work
to be done, and not with any moral good.*
As to symbolism, a word I by all means propose to retain
(imagism being not only dated but implying rather le
symbolisme qui cherche than le symbolisme qui sait), I totally
disagree that each artist must create his own symbols. That is
to make of art, not a universal language, but a Babel. It is
precisely the individualism of modern art that has inevitably
separated the patron (consumer) from the artist (producer); so
that whereas Plato called the consumer the judge of art, we have
to employ a host of professional judges to explain each artist
separately; the appreciation (enjoyment) of art then becomes an
affair of little cliques, and industry is divorced from art.
Mr Read evidently thinks of symbols as conventions; but
from the standpoint of the philosophia perennis, of which the
True Philosophy of A rt is an inseparable part; the validity of
symbols depends upon the absolute presupposition (to use
Professor Collingwoords phrase) of the existence of adequate
analogies on all levels of reference and as between all degrees of
reality. The symbol, then, is not a matter for choice, but for
recognition. That symbols lose their significance is not quite
true; the historical fact is that people may forget the meaning of
the symbols they continue to employ as art forms or
orders. I am surprised and pleased to find that Mr Read
agrees with me that, in thus becoming art forms, the
symbols have lost their vitality. The Greek Egg and Dart
would be a good example. But [the fact] that symbolism has
become a dead language for the majority (for whom aesthetic
reactions suffice) is no more reason why those who have
been educated as they ought should not read them, than is the
fact that the signs of higher mathematics are meaningless to
most of us a reason for discarding them. The mathematical
signs are, indeed, conventional; but even so, it would be
ridiculous for every mathematician to distinguish himself by
the invention of an entirely new set of signs. In order to be
original it is not necessary to be novel, or even personal.
In conclusion, I venture to call attention to an article on
ornament which appeared in the Art Bulletin, Vol XXI , 1939;
in this article, I showed that the words meaning ornament or
decoration in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and English all meant
originally equipment. This basic fact is one that every student of
the history of art should be required to digest. I should like also
to mention my article, De la mentalite primitif in Etudes
Traditionnelles, Vol 44, 1939. In this article, amongst other
things, I discussed the symbolism of safety pins. The Special
Number of the same journal for August-September, 1940, will
be devoted to the symbolism of games.
AKC
* On occasion and in order to make a case, Dr Coomaraswamy could isolate
elements of an argument to the point of sophistry. It seems that this is one
such rare case. The artist docs not work as an artificer only, as AK C himself
stated in a lecture (printed as Chap II in Christian and Oriental Philosophy of
Art, see p 24):
An absolute distinction of art from prudence is made for purposes of
logical understanding; but while we make this distinction, we must not
forget the man is a whole man, and cannot be justified as such merely by
what he makes; the artist works by art and willingly. Even supposing
that he avoids artistic sin, it is still essential to him as man to have had a
right will, and so to have avoided moral sin.
Moreover, it is inadmissible to equate sword and bomb in the theory of
warfare. The sword is a tool, the bomb a machinean infernal machine. The
sword can be and often is a thing of great beauty; a bomb excludes any
participation in the divine quality of beauty by its essentially negative and
indiscriminately destructive character. We must distinguish in any artifact
between what is essential and what is accidental. Nor may we forget that
man, as artist, has as his paradigm God the Creator; and this implies a degree
of nobility in the works of any genuine artist.
Both Ornament and Primitive Mentality were republished in Coomaras
wamy: Selected Papers, I, Bollingen Series, L XXXI X, Princeton, 1977; see
Bibliography.
Herbert Read, art critic, teacher and museologist; was especially interested in
modem art. He was later knighted.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
Date not given
Sir:
In further comment on the . . . True Philosophy of Art, I
must take exception to Mr Reads statement in your issue of
August 8, language is a more beautiful material than metal.
The choice of material has nothing to do with beauty, but is a
matter only of propriety and taste or predilection. Beauty is the
attractive aspect of perfection, and all perfection, approachable
or attainable in human performance, is a perfection in some
given kind; and as there are no degrees of perfection, it follows
that one material is not as such more beautiful than any other
(cf Greater Hippias, 291, Gold is no more beautiful than
wood). We cannot as such say that green is more beautiful
than red pigment, but only that we prefer one to the other: the
use of green when red would be appropriate would be a cause
of ugliness. In the same way, the scale of grandeur and
complexity has nothing to do with beauty. From the point of
view of the . . . True Philosophy, art is not an aesthetic, but a
rhetorical activity, and while pleasure perfects the operation,
it becomes the sin of luxary i f we divorce the pleasure from the
operation and make it the sole end. I am surprised that Mr read
should introduce matters of predilection (de qustibus non est
disputandum) into any discussion of art, which is the principle
of manufacture, and of the artefact, which can be judged only
in terms of the ratio of achievement to intention, regardless of
what the intention may have been.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY LONDON
Sir:
I am astonished to find Mr Romney Green, with whose
philosophy I am generally in cordial agreement, saying that
art is mainly an affair of instinct. Socrates, on the other
hand, could not give the name of art to anything irrational.
While for the whole Middle Ages, art is an intellectual
virtue. Art is that kind of knowledge by which we know how
to make whatever it has been decided should be made for a
given purpose, and without which there can be no good use.
Were it merely or mainly a matter of instinct, then art would
be merely or mainly a function of our animal nature, rather
than of human nature as such. Works are traditionally supposed
to provide for the needs of soul and body at one and the same
time; and that means that they arc to be at the same time useful
and intelligible, aptus et pulcher.
Of expressions that arc mainly instinctive one might citc a
babys crying or a lambs gamboling. Of these, the former is
not music, nor the latter dancing. Dancing, if we ignore
such sensate cultures as our own, is a rational activity because
the gestures arc signs of things, and what is signified is
something over and above the pleasures of the feelings (De
Ordine, 34). Mr Green himself is willing to allow that a
significant art must be significant of something. But an
instinctive expression, however revealing it may be (of the
exprcssors own state of mind), cannot be described as
significant. To signify is to intend a given meaning, and this
is an act of the mind: while any unintended submission to the
pulls of instinct is not an act, but a passion.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY LONDON
March 30, 1944
Sir:
In further reply to Mr Romney Green: the artist does not
work by instinct, as bees do or as lambs gambol, but per
verbum in intellectu conceptum. In other words, ars sine scientia
nihil. Mr Hopes misunderstanding of the word instinct is
private, and useless for the purposes of communicating with
others.
What should be made is decided not by the artist but by the
whole man, of whom the man as artist is only one aspect: the
whole mans active life being governed by prudence as well as
art. Works of art are for good use. The artist knows how to
make them,, but the man knows what is needed.*
AKC
* See note on p 401.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
Undated
Sir:
I cannot help feeling that Mr Romney Greens use of the
words instinct and intellect is very dangerous and confus
ing because it reverses the traditional usage, in which instincts
are natural physical propensities of the outer man, and the
(pure) intellect is that of the knowing inner man. By instinct
and intellect Mr Green means what others would call intui
tion (or inspiration) and mentality. It is this mentality
that has disrupted our civilisation, for instead of cooperating
with the intuition, it has entered the service of the instincts, as
Plato puts it. I think this will make Mr Greens meaning clear
to those who use the traditional terms more exactly.
I should also like to protest against his remarks on human
sacrifice. For i f there is any eternally true value, it is that of
human sacrifice. What he means to say is that a particular ritual
form of human sacrifice is no longer convenient. In ritual
human sacrifice the victim was always either actually, or in any
case theoretically, a willing victim. The whole Christian edifice
rests upon the theory of a human sacrifice, never to be atoned
for except by those who sacrifice themselves. On the other
hand, the outstanding crime of modem industrial cultures is
that they sacrifice men every day, not with any spiritual
intention, but only the sacrificers worldly benefit. I cannot but
recall the story of the cannibal who, hearing of the great
slaughter that occurs in modern wars, asked i f the bodies were
eaten, and being told that this was not done, exclaimed then
for whatever reason are so many killed?
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
J uly 27, 1944
Sir:
I feel that there is not very much more to be said about art
and instinct. 1am far from failing to recognize the perfection
that is achieved by instinctive operation, for example by bees,
who do better in their way than we often do in ours. Their way
and our way should be natural ways; and not therefore the same
ways, for theirs is the nature of bees, and ours that of
humanity. Instincts are forces by which the bees are in a
manner compelled, and so with our own appetites and passions
by which we are led to pursue immediate ends, whether for
good or evil. In human art ends are foreseen and means chosen;
the artists working is deliberate and, I repeat, with Plato, that
one cannot give the name of art to anything irrational.
The whole matter has been admirably stated by Eric Gill,
who says:
To produce works of art is natural to men, therefore works
of art are, in a sense, themselves natural objects. Nature, the
natural world, we must suppose to be the product of the fully
deliberate will of God, therefore the natural world is itself a
work of art. But though, in this apparent confusion, the
definition of nature remains obscure, the thing called art
emerges clearly. A rt'is skill; and that is what it has always
been and what it has always been said to be. But it is a
deliberate skill; and a work of art is the product of voluntary
acts directed towards making. Hence art is a virtue of the
intelligenceit is of the mind. Deliberation and volition arc
essential to the thing called Art. An involuntary act or an act
performed without intellection may be good or bad in se; it is
not the work of an artist.
This is from his essay on Clothing without Cloth. It will
be seen that Gill distinguishes correctly between the art (which
always remains in the artist) and the work of art produced per
artem and ex voluntate. I would add that skill becomes a habit
(habitus) or second nature; the artist who has acquired the habit
of his art works easily, but we must not confuse this facility
with that of the animal architects. The latter, however
admirable, can only be called artists, in a human sense, to the
extent that they deliberate or solve problems as, for example,
beavers and elephants arc sometimes said to do. It may well be
that the beginnings of human nature* can be recognized in
some of the more intelligent animals; but this does not mean
that our own instinctive animal nature is our human nature.
AKC
* Or rather, the glimmerings of intelligence.
Eric Gill, Clothing without Cloths, an Essay on the Nude, Berkshire, England,
1921.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
December 12, 1945
Sir:
I agree with Richard Hope about abstraction. There is
really very little in common between modern abstract art
and the primitive art to which it sometimes bears a
superficial resemblance; I have refused to call primitive art
abstract or to admit that its forms arc impoverished by their
simplicity. We might as well remember that God is simple.
St Bonaventuras circle of which the centre is everywhere and
the circumference nowhere is simple, indeed, but certainly not
abstract. In almost the same sense, an- algebraic formula is
simple, much simpler than the totality of the arithmetic
statements it resumes would be. So I say that Mr Hope is
wrong in thinking that such a formula as X - X = 0 is
meaningless. I find it very much the reverse. For what are X
and X? Any or indefinitely all of the opposite things of which
the world or any universe is necessarily made, or would not
have extension in time and space. As Cusa says, the wall of
Paradise itself is built of these contraries; while the God within,
whom the mystics often call nihil or zero, is that in which all
these contraries really cancel out and are no longer contraries.
This does not mean that an indefinite number of contraries
added up would make or fill the naught He is, or any naught;
it means that however many the contraries are, they are all
potentially alive in the pleroma which whosoever findeth,
findeth no-thing and all things. In other words, X X = 0 is
not an impoverished or abstract but a pregnant statement.
For the same reasons in India the verbal designations of the
mathematical or the metaphysical naught are also the
designations of fullness that remains undiminished however
many may be the units that we abstract from It. It is these
singular things, in all their detail, that arc abstracted from
It; not the Naught from them! To make them cancel out is to
return them to their source.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
J une 3, 1945
Sir:
Apropos of I magination, discussed by Mr Williams in your
issue of May 10, I think it is too often overlooked that the word
itself is the equivalent of I conography. To imagine is to form an
image of an idea, a thing in itself invisible; and this kind of
imitation is the proper work of art, to be distinguished from
the studio practice of making copies of copies. It presup
poses, not observation, but contemplation. The embodiment
of such concepts, fathered by Nous on Aisthesis in the actual
material of sound or pigment, calls for knowledge and
precision, and that is where the Romantics so often fall short,
by their exclusive reliance on feeling; it is true that mens sine
desiderio non intelligit, but also that sine intellectu non desiderat. He
who truly imagines docs not so much know what he likes as he
likes what he knows.
AKC
To DR JOSEPH T. SHIPLEY
October 29, 1946
Dear Shipley:
The quotation is from Whiteheads Religion in the Making.
Herbert Read gives the context. Whitehead says:
In this way emotion waits upon ritual; and then ritual
repeated and elaborated for the sake of its attendant
emotions. Mankind became artists in ritual. It was a
tremendous discoveryhow to excite emotions for their
own sake, apart from imperious biological necessity. But
emotions sensitize the organism. Thus the unintended effect
was produced of sensitizing the human organism in a variety
of ways diverse from what would have been produced by the
necessary work of life. Mankind was started upon its
adventures of curiosity and feeling.
This all seems to me to be intended quite seriously, but to be
as nearly complete nonsense as possible; thoroughly sen
timental.
It was thus, Herbert Read opines, that the arts came into their
own! I am sorry to have neglected La Driere. This is the first
year in my life that I havent done my duty by correspondents.
I simply havent been able to ..........
With kindest regards from
AKC
Dr J oseph T. Shipley, literatist and critic; see p 222.
Alfred North Whitehead, British-American philosopher, very influential;
taught at Harvard University in the American phase of his career. As
mathematician, collaborated with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica.
Herbert Read, critic, museologist and teacher of art; had strong interest in
modern art. He was later knighted.
J ames Craig La Driere; it was probably the academic of this name to whom
AK C referred; he taught comparative literature at Catholic University of
America, Washington, D. C., USA.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
March 13, 1941
Sir:
Mr Herbert Read refuses to succeed as an artist at the
expense of his morality (J an 16, 1941, p 147). Bravo! This was
the basis of Platos famous censorship; and as Cicero said,
Cum artifex, turn vir. I should have thought that it had been
demonstrated once for all, by Plato (not to mention other
traditional forms of the philosophia perenrtis), that i f we are to
have things fit for free men made by art (and certainly many
things now made only for sale are unfit for the use of free men),
they must be both correct, true or beautiful and also
useful or convenient and arc only then wholesome. It
was said by William Morris, too, that we ought not to possess
anything not both beautiful and useful: and in fact all else is
either brutality or luxury. The artist is the judge of the
works truth, perfection or beauty, and being only concerned
with the good of the work itself, will not normally (as the
manufacturer or rather salesman may) offer the consumer
anything but a true work of art. The consumer, on the other
hand, requires the work for use, and is the judge of its value for
good use. Arc wc not all consumers, and i f so why shrink from
putting the artist in his own place, and from judging the work
by its value? By employing an artist at all we take it for granted
that the work will be pulcher, and must dccidc for ourselves
whether or not it is aptus.
AKC
To PROFESSOR BERNARD CHAPMAN HEYL
May 6, 1946
Dear Professor Heyl:
Apropos your New B E A R I N G S . . . , p 146, I should like to
say that I do not judge art by its content, and have never said
that I did so. I made this very clear in my article on I ntention
in the American Bookman (no I) where I pointed out that a
morally reprehensible orator or writer might be a much better
orator or writer than some morally admirable man, or vice
versa as the case might be. I judge the work of art as much by
whether the content is clearly expressed, ie, by the extent to
which content and shape are fused into a unity. What I judge by
the content is whether the work of art is of any value for me,
physically or spirituallyand i f not, then I have no use for it,
even though I can recognize its accomplishment. I f you
should ever reprint, I hope you will be kind enough to bring
your statement into line with my actual position.
As a Curator, it is my business to recognize works of art that
are good of their kind, whatever that may be; but as an
individual, there are some such that I would like to live with,
others not. At the same time I think it very important for the
understanding of ancient or exotic worlds of art not to presume
that their makers had aesthetic preoccupations such as are now
current, but to find out by various kinds of research what they
were really up to; failing that, we fall into the pathetic fallacy.
Very sincerely,
Professor Bernard Chapman Heyl, author of a book entitled New Bearings in
Aesthetics and Art Criticism: a Study in Semantics and Evaluation, New Haven,
1943. Also published in L ondon the same year.
I ntention, American Bookman, I.
To PROFESSORS W. K. WIMSAIT AND M. C. BEARDSLEY
September 4, 1946
Dear Professors Wimsatt and Beardsley:
Many thanks for sending me your paper on Intention. I will
only say that I am only perfectly willing to agree that the
poets aim (ie, intention) must be judged at the moment of the
creative act and even that in a prolonged act, the intention and
the act move together; but while the contemporary intention
may differ from what he had planned a week earlier, it is still
most probable that his design a week or even much earlier, and
much longer before the act will be a good indication at least of
what the intention is likely to have been at the time of action. I f
the realisation of intention at any point is adequate, the work is
so far artistically perfect.
I still see no artistic, but only moral, difference between the
successful murder and the successful poem.*
Very sincerely,
* This, too, is much too clliptical as it stands. Dr Coomaraswamy often used
the word art equivocally at times in a vertical, platonic and fully traditional
sense; at other times, he uses it in a horizontal sense meaning skill alone.
Aristotle, e.g., uses the word more in the latter sense and even then
distinguishes between artistic and moral sin, for it suggests that beauty has
nothing to do with virtue. Art, or production by art, implies an intellectual
operation, a contemplative actas AK C often asserted. Now intellect, as
distinct from reason, is concerned with pure truth; and as soon as one departs
from truth, one departs from intellect, with all this implies for art. Not so
with reason which, like an algebraic formula, can be adapted to almost any
terms. Reason deals with relationships (as well as, indirectly, with truth),
intellect with intrinsic natures and essences. The intrinsic nature of truth
cannot be separated from the kindred quality of beauty, which is the
splendor of the true. One can sin adroitly or maladroitly, but mere finnesse
docs not neutralize the evili f anything, it adds to it. Similarly, a poem can
be the product of little more than a facility with words. Beauty, a divine
quality or attribute, cannot characterize something evil, trivial or wayward,
except in a wholly accidental sense. A murder cannot be a beautiful act i f
words have any meaning.
Professor Monroe C. Beardsley and Professor Wilbun K urtz Wimsatt, J r.,
who exchanged correspondence with Dr Coomaraswamy on the notion of
intention in literary criticism.
To ERIC GILL
J une 1934
Dear Eric:
As to my book, there is one error I regret, namely my use of
consonantia, in which I made a mistake. Consonantia is with
reference to symmetry of parts, that kind of order in things which
Augustine regarded as, together with their unity, the most
evident trace of God in the world. 1hope to be able to correct
this in a later edition. I am working at more material from
Scholastic sourcesMaritains book is really very insufficient
and Mediaeval aesthetic has yet to be demonstrated, starting
from the fundamental analogy between the divine artifices.
This recognized analogy enables us to understand from
expositions of creation and in connection with the magnifi
cent doctrine of exemplarism (which goes back to neo-
Platonicnot to say earlier sources) just what the mediaeval
authors understood by operation per artem. I hope that at the
same time that I collect this material to complete a long article
on Vedic exemplarismand as I have often said before, there
can be no reason even from the most orthodox Christian point
of view why the Christian philosopher should not fortify his
position by use of material drawn from pagan sources, which is
precisely what was done by the great doctors of Christian
Europe long ago.
With regard to your other point, I think most likely the
secret of a balance between love and thought centers, not in
not loving things, but in loving them not as they are in
themselves, but as they are more perfectlybottoms
includedin God. Speculum aeternum mentes re videntium ducit in
cognitionem omnium creatorum, quod rectuis bi cognoscunt quam alili
(Augustine). God is understood to know things not by their
private essences, but by their forms (ideas), and it is precisely
these forms that we ought to try to see and to imitate in our art,
which is or ought to be an angelic communication.
Now I want to see i f you can help me as follows: find a
young man of the proper education who wants to earn a few
pounds to make a translation for me of Aquinas Opusculum de
pulchro et bono which is a part of his commentary on Dionysius
De divinis nominibus; and perhaps also Aquinas Opusculum de
ente et essentia. My Latin I am polishing up, but it is still
laborious, and I would like a draught version at least of the De
pulchro. I have in view the making of further articles on
Scholastic aesthetic and insist that the study of mediaeval art in
our universities is mostly play until the fundamental positions
are considered.
With this request, I remain ever cordially,
Eric Gill, see p 82.
J acques Maritain, most prominent of the Neo-Thomist philosophers and a
prolific writer; a convert to Catholicism along with his wife, he was widely
respected throughout the Catholic world.
Vedic Exemplarism, originally published in the Harvard Journal o f Asiatic
Studies, I, 1936; republished in Coomaraswamy: Selected Papers, II, Bollingen
Scries L XXXI X, Princeton, 1977.
To ERIC GILL
May 23, 1939
My dear Eric:
This is a short note in reply to yours of May 5. Ive been
away from the Museum for 3 weeks but expect to get back
soon tho I shall have lost a month: I got a facial cramp, due to a
chill they say, and one consequence is a watering of the eyes
that prevents reading with any comfort. However, I expect to
be pretty near well by next week.
Mairet did speak of asking you to write on my stuff and I
should have liked that. I f Father Vann docs it, he should be lent
also the Zalmoxis article, the Vedanta article and Eckstein,
which I had not sent to Mairet. Im glad you like the Biunity;
I thought I had sent you one and will do so next week. It was
approved by Bowen who is a Professor at Catholic University
here. My lecture at this university, will be printed as a Stephens
pamphlet at the same time as yours. Yes, as someone has
remarked, Plato could not broadcast his stuff; but on the other
hand, could we have written it? It is a question whether this
absorption and preoccupation with means is not pretty danger
ous. The South Sea Islanders did their carving with very simple
tools of stone and shell; when they were given good steel tools
their craftsmanship went to pieces.
The chief new idea expressed in my lecture to be printed, I
think is that merely functional art equates with bread
alone. . . . , husks that the swine did eata good, of
course, but an insufficient good for man.
Affectionately,
Eric Gill, as above.
Philip Mairet, English friend of AK C and editor of the New English Weekly,
London, to which AK C frequently contributed.
Father Gerald Vann, OP, see p 105.
To MISS HILLA REBAY
August 29, 1947
Dear Miss Rebay:
Many thanks for yours of August 16. It is rather a shame if
after 30 years of Curatorship in the Museum of Fine Arts (apart
from previous experience) I have no opportunity to see
creative art!
No one is more aware than I that the realities of our
existence are non-objective. This has always been the tradi
tional doctrine; and I have cited so much in my books (Why
Exhibit Works of Art? and Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought
regarding its application to art that I shall only refer here to
Plato, Rep 510 D, E; Laws 931 A; Tim 51 E, 92; and the well
known passage on mathematical beauty in Philebus, all to the
effect that what true art imitates is never itself a visible form.
But this does not mean that the work of art was to be looked
upon merely as an aesthetic surface, provocative of feelings; it
had to satisfy both mind and body. Some of the modern
abstract works are, no doubt, pleasing; but that is not
enough for a whole man, who is something more than a merely
aesthetic animal. As for your words still catering only to
the senses, that is just what the modern emphasis on aesthetic
surfaces as ends in themselves implies; such catering is
precisely what mediaeval art has never done* nor religious art
of any school except in Hellenistic and modern times, when it
becomes sentimental, like the rest of modern art. The word
aesthetic by definition has only to do with things perceptible
to the sense.
As for why Dr Marquette mentioned my name to you, the
enclosed may explain; it need not be returned, as it has already
been set up, and will appear in my 70th birthday Festschrift, Art
and Thought, to be published by Luzac this year.
The reproductions you kindly sent me 1gave to our library,
where they will be available to all students.
Very sincerely,
* See, for example, Irish and Romanesque art generally; or reproductions in
the Wiesbaden Mss, illustrating St Hildegardes (12th century) visions. What
you would probably dislike in these works is that they have a meaning. In as
much as modern man is typically anti-intellectual, it is not surprising that
appreciations of modern art such as those in the Hostess Reports can be
collected. I send you separately a reprint in which the two coloured
reproductions might please you were it not for the fact that they, too, are
about something. (AK Cs note)
Miss Hilla Rebay, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Why Exhibit Works of Art?, London, 1943. See Bibliography.
Figures o f Speech or Figures o f Thought, L ondon, 1946. See Bibliography.
Art and Thought, L ondon, 1947; this was the Festschrift to which AK C
referred.
To MR L. HARRISON
December 17, 1946
Dear Mr Harrison:
Many thanks for your very kind letter which I read with
pleasure. First let me say you will find some more material in
Figures o f Speech or Figures of Thought . . . and some on dance
and music in The Mirror of Gesture . . . ; a chapter on music in
my Dance o f Shiva (o p); and on the representations of (the ethos
of) musical modes in my Rajput Painting (Oxford, 1914) or this
Museums Catalog o f the Indian Collections, Vol V. Marco Pallis
Peaks and Lamas (Am ed at present o p) gives a very valuable
discussion of the relation of the arts to society as a whole ( in
Tibet, but typical for any traditional society); cf also the chap,
Notes on Savage A rt in my Figures of Speech . . .
I think the point to be remarked is that just as we have
isolated painting as something to be seen in Galleries, so we
have isolated music as something to be heard in Halls; whereas
it was in all traditional societies bound up with all the activities
of life (as it still is in India). For this relation of music, drama
and poetry to life as a whole, see in Beryl de Zoete and Walter
Spies, Dance Drama in Bali (a wonderful book), Colin McPhees
A House in Bali. . and perhaps also my Bugbear of Literacy
in Asia Magazine for February 1944; also Astrov, The Winged
Serpent. . ., p 33 and passim. For India, also Fox Strangeways,
Music o f Hindustan, Oxford, 1914; and Danielou, Introduction to
the Study o f Musical Scales, London, 1943; K urt Sachs, History of
Music, East and West. But these last you doubtless already
know. I believe the New Y ork Public Library is rather
specialized in musical literature of these kinds. It would be
impossible for me just now to think of writing about music,
because of all the other work I am involved in, but why dont
you do it yourself, using some of the material to be found in all
sources?
For the principle of vocation generally, I might perhaps have
also mentioned my Religious Basis of the Forms o f Indian
Society. . . New Y ork, 1946.
Let me know i f this helps, and if you wish write again.
Very sincerely,
Mr L. Harrison, The New York Herald Tribune.
Figures o f Speech or Figures o f Thought, AKC, London, 1946; see Bibliogra-
phy.
The Mirror o f Gesture, AK C and Gopal Kristnayya Duggirala, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1917; see Bibliography.
Dance o f Shiva, AK C, numerous editions, see Bibliography.
Rajput Painting, AK C, Oxford, 1914; see Bibliography.
Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, numerous editions; see Bibliography.
Beryl de Zoete and Walter Spies, Dance and Drama in Bali, London, 1938.
Colin McPhee, A House in Bali, New Y ork, 1946.
Margot Lusia Thcrese (Kroger) Askrov, The Winged Serpent: an Anthology of
American Indian Prose and Poetry, New Y ork, 1946.
Alain Danieou, Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales, London, 1943.
K urt (or Curt) Sachs: Dr Coomaraswamy was apparcHtly confused as to the
title referred to here, for Dr Sachs is not credited with such a book in the
principal bibliographic sources. He was a German-Amcrican musicologist
who wrote and published a number of books on the history of music.
The Religious Basis of the Forms of Indian Society, AK C, New Y ork, 1946; see
Biliography.
The Bugbear of Literacy, Asia Magazine, February 1944. This was also the
title essay in a collection published under this title in L ondon in 1949, and in
the United States under the title Am I My Brother's Keeper?, New Y ork, 1947.
To MRS W. Q. SWART
March 15, 1933
Dear Madam:
There exists of course a vast literature on Indian art. We have
here what is on the whole the best collection of Indian paintings
in the world*, and certainly the best general Indian collections
and working library in America. I think it would be essential
for you to spend a short time here before actually going to
India. In the meantime I would suggest your looking up my
article on The Teaching of Drawing in Ceylon in the Ceylon
National Review for December 1906; Tagore, L Alpone, Paris,
1921; my I ntroduction to the Art of Eastern Assi, Open Court
Magazine, March 1932; and articles on Indian art in the
'Encyclopaedia Britannica. Also such magazines as Rupam, nos
1-40, and the Journal of Indian Art. Also, Hadaway, Illustrations
o f Metal Work in Brass and Copper. . . .
We have no modern Indian paintings here. They are
analogous to Pre-Raphaelite art in Europe; more significant
as representing a revolution of taste and outlook than as
everlasting works of art, though they have great charm and
sensitiveness.
Y ou would also find much material in my Mediaeval Sinhalese
Art, 1908. For the rest I can only suggest you spend a few days
here. I should be glad to assist you.
Very sincerely,
*I t is worth noting that Dr Coomaraswamys own collection, amassed
during the early years of his career when he was in India, formed the basis of
outstanding holdings of the Boston Museum. When it became apparent that
no satisfactory arrangements could be made to house the Coomaraswamy
collection in India, AK C brought them out of the country with him and
eventually to the United States.
Mrs W. Q. Swart, New Y ork, N Y, was a student at Columbia University
School of Art and was thinking of going to India to teach art in a secondary
school.
William S. Hadaway, Illustrations of Metal Work in Brass and Copper, Madras,
1913.
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art was AK Cs first major book and was printed under
his personal supervision at Essex House Press, Norman Chapel, Broad
Campden, Gloucestershire, England between September 1907 and Decem
ber 1908. A second edition was published by Pantheon Books, New Y ork,
1956.
To GEORGE SARTON
Date uncertain
Dear Sarton:
There are three important pieces of Islamic glass in the
Museum of Fine Arts. The lamp of Karim al-Din, who retired
in 723 AH (= 1323); and published in Gaston Wiet, Musee
Arabe, le Caire Catalogue general . . . lampes et bouteilles en verre
emaille, Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, J anuary 1928, and with a
revised translation of the inscriptions in the 1940 edition of the
MFA Handbook. The glass globe was made for Saif al-din
Arghun al-Alai, who died in 748 AH (= 1347-8). It has been
published by Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry, p 74; and also in MFA
Bulletin for August 1912 and in Eastern Art, Vol II, p 245. A
glass bottle bears no inscription.
There are over 300 important pieces of enamelled glass
known. Wiet in his catalogue (1929) has published 118 glass
objects and the majority of them arc lamps, of which 87 can be
dated by their inscriptions (see his I ntroduction). There arc 19
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a collection second only to
the Cairo Museum.
AKC
George Sarton, see page 13.
To ROBIN FIELD
Date uncertain
My dear Robin:
To have a background for European art before 1300 and a
way of understanding what happend after that, I think one
should have read:
Plato, Republic, Gorgias, Cartylus, Symposium Plotinus,
McKennas 5 vol version
Hermes, at least Asclepius I in Scotts Hermetica Dionysius,
translation published by SPCK
Svoboda, L Esthetique de Saint Augustin
Augustine, Confessions and De Doctrina Christiana
St Thomas Aquinas, at least the first volume of the translation
Summa Theologica
Meister Eckhart, 2 volumes translated by Pfeiffer [actually C de
B Evans], London, 1924 and 1931
Longinus, On the Sublime
Also, of course, some of Aristotle, though you get this
implicitly in St Thomas.
Books about the subject, I suggest:
F. M. Lund, Ad Quadratum, London, 1921
M. C. Ghyka, Le Nombre dor, Gallimard, Paris, 1931
Albert Gleizes, Vers une conscience plastique, Paris
J . M. Bissen, L Exemplarisme divin selon Saint Bonaventure,
Librairie Philosophique, Paris, 1929
Rene Guenon, Mythcs, mysteres et symboles in Etudes
Traditionnelles, Paris, Vol 40, 1935
AKC, The Part of Art in Indian Life, in The Cultural Heritage
of India, vol III, 1937
Mediaeval Aesthetic, Art Bulletin, New Y ork, XVII
Spinden, in Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, October 1935
Baldwin, Mediaeval Rhetoric and Poetic
Buchier, L Art chretien
AKC, The Nature of Buddhist Art [this was AK Cs
I ntroduction to a collection of Indian and Ceylonese wall
paintings by Benjamin Rowland, J r, ag v]
Y ou might read first, in the first group, Eckhart; and [first] in
the second group, Guenon, Spinden and Lund.
1 hope this will be of some help. Drop in again.
Very sincerely,
Robin Field was a member of the faculty of fine arts at Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
We will not further identify most of these tides, as sufficient information is
provided for the serious reader, except to note that Plotinus Enneads are now
available in a one volume edition (same translation); there have been
additional translations of Dionysius in whole or in part; there have been
more recent editions and/or translations of Eckhart, Le Nombre dor, and
Walter Scotts Hermetica (1985). Mythes, mysteres et symboles by Rene
Guenon appeared also as a chapter in his Apergus sur Iinitiation (Paris, 1946,
1975).
To DR KWANG-WAN KIM
April 26, 1947
Dear Dr Kim:
It would take a very long letter to answer yours fully; it is a
pity we cannot meet. I think it is important to impress on
students that one cant have a single volume that will tell
them all they need to know. However, for China I would
recommend E. R. Hughes, Chinese Philosophy in Classical Times
(Everymans Library), and Rene Guenon, La Grande Triade (this
last being an exegesis of the implications of the character ^ ).
For India I would recommend Rene Guenon, Introduction to the
Study of the Hindu Doctrines (London, 1945), and my Hinduism
and Buddhism (New Y ork, 1943); Zimmers Myths and Symbols
in Indian Art and Civilization (1946, New Y ork) and Nikhila-
nanda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942, New Y ork); and
(for Tibetan Buddhism) Marco Pallis Peaks and Lamas (of
which there are four English editions and one US). All these I
should call indispensable. For Islam, all the works of R. A.
Nicholson, especially Studies in Islamic Mysticism (Cambridge,
England, 1921), Diwan of Shams-i-Tabriz (1898), and his
translation of the Mathnawi of J alalud-d-Din Rumi (Gibb
Memorial Series); Frithjof Schuon, Christianity and I slam in
The Arab World (Vol I, No 3, New Y ork, 1946); Margaret
Smith, Al-Ghazzali (London, 1921); Gairdner, Al-Ghazzalis
Mishkat al-Anwar (London, 1924); Fitzgerald, Salaman and Absal
and Bird Parliament (Boston, 1899, or in his Collected Works);
Demetra Vaka, Heremlik (Boston, 1911); and for the Quran,
the translation by Marmaduke Picthall. For Buddhism, you
might use F. L. Woodward, Some Sayings of the Buddha (World
Classics). Hare, Woven Cadences (Pali Text Society).
For India I ought to have mentioned also, Temple, The Word
of Lalla the Prophetess (1924) and Dara Shikuhs Majml Bahrein
(Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 1929): these especially for Islam
in relation to Hinduism.
Of my own writings, also Recollection, Indian and
Platonic, (Journal of the American Oriental Society, Supplement
3, 1944); Am I my Brothers Keeper? (New Y ork, 1947; material
on one philosophy); my chapter in The Asian Legacy (New
Y ork, 1945); On Being in Ones Right Mind in Review of
Religion, VII, 1942, also, Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power
in the Indian Theory of Government [New Haven, 1942].
All such books and others, as you doubtless know, are most
easily obtained from Orientalia (47 West 47th St, N Y).
I regard the book of Northrup as fundamentally unsound,
though good in some parts. His distinctions are artificial; the
so-called aesthetic approach (eg, in such expressions as grasp
ing reality) is a linguistic necessity, equally in E and W, and not
a characteristic of either. Nor do I think that Georgia OKeefe
throws any light on the subject! The main point, however, [is]
that he does not realize that his differences between E and W
have nothing to do with geography, but with time; they are the
same as the differences between the modern world and the
mediaeval and ancient worlds in the West itself.
This leads me to one last remark. Viz, that one cannot
effectively communicate Eastern religion and philosophy to
people here who havent already grasped some religious and
metaphysical principles; in other words, to most Americans
(Christians so-called included). Hence you have a right to
demand of your students that as a condition of admission to the
course they must have some acquaintance with Greek philoso
phy (especially Pythagorean, which is practically the same as
Vedanta). All that means one should have studied the pre-
Socratics, Plato, Philo, Plotinus, Dionysius, Bonaventura,
Aquinas, The Cloud of Unknowing, Nicholas of Cusa, etc, etc,
before attempting to understand the East. Y ou might as well tell
your students this, as a counsel of perfection.
Let me know how you get on with your course.
Very sincerely,
Dr K wang-Wan K im had been appointed to a teaching position at Simpson
College, Indianola, I owa, USA, and had written to AK C requesting a single
book or a bibliography to be used in a course on Philosophy and Religion.
To JOHN OSMAN
J une 25, 1947
Dear Mr Osman:
I most certainly apologize for having neglected to send any
kind of bibliography. Even now I cannot pretend to send you a
complete guide, but I will list some essential books for India,
and later ask you to let me know whether you mean also
Islamic and Persian material.
The basic epitome of Indian religion and philosophy is, of
course, the Bhagavad Gita; there are many, but no perfect
translations; I prefer on the whole the one by Bhagavan Das
and Mrs [Annie] Bcsant. For the Upanishads, Hume, The
Thirteen Principal Upanishads (Oxford) has its uses, but it is not
always accurate, and the I ntroduction hardly acceptable from
the Hindu point of view; I prefer the freer but more
understanding version by the Rev W. R. Teape, in his The
Secret Lore o f India. For the Brahmanas and Aranyakas, for
which I have the highest respect, the following are good:
Eggelings Satapatha Br (5 vols in SBE; Kieth, Rigveda
Brahmanas (Harvard Oriental Series, vol 25) and Aitareya
Aranyaka (Oxford) and Sankhayana Aranyaka (Royal Asiatic
Society, Oriental Translation Fund, RAS, London) and Oertel,
Jatminiya Upanishad Brahmana (in J ournal of the American
Oriental Society, 16) and Caland, Pancavimsa Brahmana (Cal
cutta, 1931) are all pretty good. All these sources at least should
be in your library as well as my Hinduism and Buddhism
(Philosophical Library, N. Y ., 1943).
For a general introduction to the East and its problems I
know nothing equal to Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas;
Nikhilanandas The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (B. Y ., Vedanta
Centre) a classic, nearly in the same class as Zimmer, Der Weg
zum Selbst (Rascher Verlag, Zurich) dealing with the still living
Sri Ramana Maharsi.
For Indian sociology, Bhagavan Das, The Science of Social
Organization-, Bharatan Kumarappa, Capitalism, Socialism or
Villagism (Shakti Karyalayam, Madras), my Religious Basis of
the Forms of Indian Society (Orientalia, N. Y .) and A. M.
Hocart, Les Castes (Paris). For Buddhism, Dhammapada (Pali
Text Soc, Minor Anthologies, 1931), Hare, Woven Ca
dences. . . . Saddharma Pundarika (SBE Vol XVI), Suzuki, Essays
in Zen Buddhism (Luzac, London).
Hinduism further: G. U. Pope, Tiruvacagam (Oxford, 1900);
R. C. Temple, The Word of Lalla (Cambridge, England 1924);
[Rabindranath] Tagore, One Hundred Poems of Kabir (N. B.:
Tagores own writings are not very important); [Arthur]
Avalon (= [Sir J ohn] Woodroffe) Shakti and Shakta(and his
other works published by Luzac, London [and later by Ganesh,
Madras]. General: The Cultural Heritage of India (3 vols) [now 4
volumes]; Legacy of India and Legacy of Islam (both Oxford).
Drama, music, etc: Fox-Strangways, Music of Hindustan
(Oxford); AKC and Duggirala, Mirror of Gesture (Weyhe,
N.Y .); AKC, Chap 8 in Asian Legacy (J ohn Day, N. Y .); Kieth,
Sanskrit Drama (Oxford); De Zoet and Spies, Dance Drama in
Bali (N. Y ., very good)-, AKC, Indian Dramatic Theory (in
Dictionary of World Literature); Danielou, Introduction to Indian
Scales (Royal India Society, London).
I would emphasize the difficulty for any student to under
stand Eastern culture unless he has a background of knowledge
of the traditional philosophy and culture of Europeprc-
Socratics, Plato, Philo, Hermes, Gospels, Plotinus, Dionysius,
Bonaventura, St Thomas, Eckhart, Ruysbroeck, Bochme.
Add the works of Rene Guenon (see in my Am I My Brothers
Keeper?)
Also of great use would be Prof B Rowlands Outline and
Bibliographies of Indian Art (Harvard); very fine is Stella
Kramrich, The Hindu Temple (1946, Calcutta); on Y oga,
Woods, Yoga System of Patanjali (Harvard Oriental Series, Vol
17); Danielou, Yoga: Method of Re-integration (University
Books, N.Y .); Zimmer, Kunstform uttd Yoga im Indischen
Bildkunst (Berlin, 1926). . .
Sincerely yours,
J ohn Osman, assistant to the President of Southwestern University,
Memphis, Tennessee, USA, had heard AK C speak at K enyon College
(Gambier, Ohio, USA) and had requested a list of books for his colleges
library as it was hoped to establish a program in Oriental studies.
As in the two previous letters, full bibliographic information is not provided
because we believe the serious inquirer can find his way forward with the
information that is provided. We may note, however, that in the fields
represented in these three bibliographical inquiries much very good work has
been done in the years since Dr Coomaraswamys death. Readers wishing to
pursue their reading in these areas are referred to the bibliographic section at
the end of this volume.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
December 24, 1942
Mind and Myth
Some recent discussions in this journal of instinct and
intellect, together with various articles on myth and folklore,
have prompted me to offer the following reflections.
I nstincts are natural appetites, which move us to what seem
to be, and may be, desirable ends; to behave instinctively is to
behave passively, all reactions being in the strictest sense of the
word passions. We must not confuse these appetitive reactions
with acts of the will. The distinction is well known: Acts of
the sensitive appetite . . . are called passions; whereas acts of
the will are not so called (St Thomas Aquinas, Sum Theol,
1.20.1 and 1); the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Moreover, as Aristotle points out (Deanima III. 10) appetite may
be right or wrong; desire as such always looks to the present,
not considering consequences; only mind is always right.
In speaking of mind, however, it must be remembered that
the traditional dicta always presuppose the distinction of two
minds, the one apathetic (ie, independent of plcasure-pain
motivation), the other pathetic (ie, subject to appetitive
persuasion); it is only the first mind (in Scholastic philosophy,
intellectus vel spirits) that, just because it is disinterested, can
judge of the extent to which an appetite (instinct) should be
indulged, i f the subjects real good, and not merely immediate
pleasure, is to be served.
So, then Hermes (Lib xii. 1.2-4) points out that in the
irrational animals, mind co-operates with the natural-instinct
proper to each kind; but in men, Mind works against the
natural-instincts. . . . So that those souls of which Mind takes
command are illuminated by its light, and it works against their
presumptions. . . . But those human souls which have not got
Mind to guide them are in the same case as the souls of the
irrational animals; in which mind co-operates (with the
appetites), and gives free course to their desires; and such souls
are swept along by the rush of appetite to the gratification of
their desires . . . and are insatiable in their craving. From the
same point of view, for Plato, the man who is governed by his
impulses is subject to himself, while he who governs them is
his own master (Laws, 645; Rep. 431, etc).
The instinctive appetites of wild animals and of men whose
lives are lived naturally (ie, in accordance with human nature)
are usually healthy; one may say that natural selection has taken
the place of Mind in setting a limit to the gratification of these
appetites. But the appetites of civilized men are no longer
reliable; the natural controls have been eliminated (by the
conquest of Nature); and the appetites, exacerbated by the
arts of advertisement, amount to unlimited wants, to which
only the disinterested Mind can set reasonable bounds.
Mr Romney Green is only able to defend the instincts (1) by
forgetting that these are really appetites or wants and (2)
because he is really thinking of those desires of which his Mind
does, in fact, approve. Captain Ludovici, on the other hand, is
entirely right in saying that our instincts must be regulated by a
higher principle. I f we are to trust our instincts, let us be sure
that they are not just any instincts, but only those that are
proper to Man, in the highest sense of the word.
I was much interested in Mr Nichols review of Waleys
translation, Monkev. He is very right in saying that it is
characteristic of this kind of literature to give the deepest
significance in the most economical everyday form; that is, in
fact, one of the essential values of all adequate symbolism.
Where, however, he is mistaken is in calling such a work a
mine of popular fancy. That is just what it is not. The material
of folklore should not be distinguished from that of myth,
the myth that is not my own, I had it from my mother, as
Euripides said; which is not to say that my mothers mother
made it. What we owe to the people themselves, and for which
we cannot be too grateful in these dark ages of the mind, is not
their lore, but its faithful transmission and preservation. The
content of this lore, as some (though all too few) learned men
have recognized, is essentially metaphysical, and only
accidentally entertaining.
In the present case the river, the bridge and the boat
are universal symbols; they are found as such in the literature of
the last three millenia and are probably of much greater
antiquity. The episode quoted appears to be an echo of the
Mahakapi Jataka (The Great Monkey Birth-story). in which
the Bodhisattva (not Boddhi-, as Mr Nichols writes) is the
King of the Monkeys, and makes of himself the bridge by
which his people can cross over the flood of sensation to the
farther shore of safety; and that is an echo of the older Samhita
text in which Agni (who can be equated on the one hand with
the Buddha and on the other with Christ) is besought to be
our thread, our bridge and our way, and May we mount
upon thy back; while in the Mabinogion we have the parallel
He who would be your chief, let him be your bridge (A vo
penn bit pont, Story of Bran wen), with reference to which Evola
remarked that this was the mot dordre of King A rthurs
chivalry. St Catherine of Sienna, had a vision of Christ in the
form of a bridge; and Rumi attributed to Christ the words For
the true believers I become a bridge across the sea. Already in
the RgVeda we find the expression Himself the bridge, he
speeds across the waters, with reference to the Sun, ie, Spirit.
And so on for the other symbols: the Tripitaka is, of course, the
well known designation of the Nikayas of the Pali Buddhist
Canon, and here stands for Scripture, taken out of its literal
sense and given its higher meaning. The floating away of the
dead body reminds that a catharsis, in the Platonic sense, ie, a
separation of the soul from the body, or in .Pauline terms, of the
Spirit from the soul, has taken place.
Vox populi, vox Dei: not because the word is theirs, but in
that it is His, viz, the Word of God, that we recognize in
Scripture but overlook in the fairy-tale that we had from our
mother, and call a superstition as it is indeed in the primary
sense of the word and qua tradition, that which has been
handed on. Strzygowski wrote He (ie, the undersigned) is
altogether right when he says, The peasant may be uncon
scious and unaware, but that of which he is unconscious and
unaware is in itself far superior to the empirical science and
realistic art of the educated man, whose real ignorance is
demonstrated by the fact that he studies and compares the data
of folklore and mythology without any more than the most
ignorant peasant suspecting their real significance. (JISOA
V, 59)
The truth is that the modern mind, hardened by its constant
consideration of the Bible as literature (I prefer St Augus
tines estimate, expressed in the words O axe, hewing the
rock), could, i f it would make the necessary intellectual effort,
turn to our mythology and folk-lore and find there, for
example in the heroic rescues of maidens from dragons or in
(what is the same thing) the disenchantment of dragons by a
kiss (since our own sensitive souls are the dragon, from which
the Spirit is our Saviour), the whole story of the plan of
redemption and its operation.
Although the above communication is not strictly a letter, but rather an
invited one page editorial in the New English Weekly, it is included because it
complements the correspondence AK C had with this journal.
To LORD RAGLAN
J uly 14, 1938
Dear Lord Raglan:
Very many thanks for your letter. Most likely you cannot
agree with my (traditional) point of view according to which
the ritual action is a mimesis, repitition and continuation of
what was done in the beginning (explicit statements to this
effect can be cited at least as far back as the Satapatha Brahmana,
about the 8th ccntury BC). We arc nevertheless in full
agreement that the myth-tellcr is dealing with actions and
symbols already known to him. It is these same actions that
arc equally imitated in ritual. 1do not accept a mythmakcr in
the modern sense of author. The myth is transmitted
deliberately, and thus the actions arc already known to the
myth-tcllcr, and the only question that can arise here is
whether he understands his material; by the time myth has
become romance, or cuhcmcriscd, this becomes more and
more doubtful. How then was the Urmythos first known?
Contemplatively; the actus primus being always a contempla
tion, after which the artist embodies the vision in material
(colour, sound, gestures, etc).
My position is philosophically realistic. That which is
told, or rather referred to (the ultimate content being strictly
inexpressible, though it can be experienced), is a reality apart
from time, seen or heard contemplatively (or as i f in a
dream) by the so-called myth-makcr (there is an old Indian
story of a sage who failed to reach heaven just bccausc he
claimed authorship in what had as a matter of fact been revealed
to him). This reality is expounded and outlined in the narrative
myth or ritual. It remains for the contemporary auditor to
become aware of it as a living experience, and not a matter of
literary art alone, again contemplatively. This all implies a
primordial revelation, or rather audition; which may be dated
back, perhaps, to the Aurignacian.
Certainly, I do not believe that human sacrifice originated
in the imagination of some story-teller, using all these words
in all their modern connotations. Traditionally, the creation of
the world, whether thought of as a past or as a continuous
event, is essentially a human sacrificethe cosmic aspect of
Deity being the Universal Man, and creation a subdivision of
this unity. This division is at the same time a voluntary sacrifice
(dividing Himself, He fills these worlds) and a passion (into
how many parts did they, the first sacrificers, or creators,
divide Him?). It is strictly in imitation of this subdivision that
the bread is broken in the Christian sacrifice.
The treatment of the myths as historical is always a quite late
and cuhcmcristic procedure. The veritable crucifixion, for
example, is a cosmic extension of the Cross of Light. There has
been a continuous transmission, not only publically of the
myth qua narrative, but also in its real significances. The
distinction is constantly made in Indian ritual books between
those who merely participate in a rite, and those who
understand it; the former may receive temporal benefits, the
latter only spiritual.
These points of view are probably quite unacceptable to you.
But if they interest you at all, I do suggest your looking at Rene
Guenon, Le Rite ct le Symbole, and Mysteres ct Symboles
in Le Voile dIsis, 40, 1935; and Frithjof Schuon, Du Sacrifice
in Etudes Traditiomelles (new name of same magazine), April
1938.
Very sincerely,
PS: Y ou say the human body must come before the statue; 1
am thinking (in Platonic fashion, if you like) of the forma
humanitatis prior to either.
L ord Raglan; Fitzroy Richard Somerset, IV Baron Raglan, was educated to
be a professional soldier and did serve as such but resigned his commission
when his father died and he succeeded to the title. An anthropologist by
interest and competence though not by formal training, his best known book
was The Hero (London, 1936), in which he argued (in a classical non sequitur)
that the great eponymous heroes never existed but were derived from ritual
and drama to provide solace to men by giving some meaning to life. There
are certain wholly external similarities between these views put forward by
Lord Raglan and those of Dr Coomaraswamy who, on occasion, expressed
doubts whether Buddhism and Christianity, eg, were historically true, or
whether J esus Christ and the Buddha ever existed. Actually, AK C believed
that J esus Christ and the Buddha and the religions they founded are so
supremely true metaphysically that the question of their historicity is of little
importance. We know, however, that AK C for a certainty held the doctrine
that any and every possibility of manifestation necessarily involves an
historical eventuation at its proper cosmic momentthat it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, to use the Biblical idiom. All
this, along with the letter itself, should be quite enough to show that any
similarity between the views put forward by Lord Raglan and those held by
Dr Coomaraswamy was no more than accidental and purely external, and
that AK C was himself definitely on the side of the angels. Lord Raglans
book, however, had the undoubted merit of pointing out the elements that
are common in the histories of Solar Heroes. See the letters on myth that
follow.
To O. H. dc A. WIJESEKERA
Date uncertain
Dear Dr Wijcsckcra:
Many thanks for yours of November 26. Regarding Buddh
ist Yakkha: I regard this term, where treated in conncction with
yakkhassa suddhi as = sappuriso and the atta hi attano natha, ie, as
what remains a reality when all that tie me so atta has been
eliminated.
Y our program for a book of vitalism is very interesting,
and covers a great deal of ground on which I have worked for
many years. I am only a little doubtful whether you have a clear
grasp of the real nature of myth. I would hardly think of
myths as biological, rather as metaphysical. We arc easily
misled by their terms, which arc necessarily those of experi
ence, employed analogically. For example, the whole problem
of solar myths cannot be treated intelligently unless we realize
the distinction of the sun whom all men see from the Sun
whom few know with the mind (AV), in Greek the
distinction of Helios from Apollo. I am sending you a few papers
in which I have discussed the nature of myths in conncction
with the study of particular eases. I would add that whole
subject of pram pertains to a traditional psychology which is
anything but exclusively Indian; and also that duo sunt in homine
may be callcd one of the most fundamental axioms of the
universal and perennial philosophy wherever we find it, in
China, India, Grcccc or Mediaeval Europe. I do not and cannot
believe in an evolution of metaphysics.
Very sincerely,
Dr O. H. de A. Wijesekera was lecturer in Sanskrit at the University of
Ceylon, Kandy.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
J une 17, 1941
Sir:
Apropos of Mr Fcrries letter on Religion, Theology and
Myth, in your issue of May 22, may I remark that a myth is
either true or worthless? From the Christian or any other
traditional point of view, the proposition credo quia incredible is
ridiculous. The nature of faith . . . consists in knowledge
alone (St Thomas Aquinas, Sum Theol I I -I I .47.13 ad 2). Crede
ut intelligas, intellige ut credas arc inseparable operations. Super
natural no more means unnatural that super-essential means
non-essential.
I can and do believe in the myth far more profoundly than in
any historical event which may or may not have taken place. 1
do not disbelieve in what are called miracles; on the other hand,
my faith would remain the same even i f it could be proved
that the events of the hero-tale never took place as related.
History is the least convincing level of truth, the myth and
the (genuine) fairy talc the most convincing. As Evola has put
it, the passage from a traditional mythology to a religion is a
humanistic decadence.
At the same time it must be remembered that even the myth
is a symbol, a representation (as in a glass darkly) of the
reality that underlies all fact but never itself becomes a fact.
Hence the via negativa to be followed when the ascent from
lower to higher levels of reference has been made by the
mythical via ajfirmativa. Nothing true can be said of God; it is
only in this sense that the myth, although truer than any fact, is
finally not true. The myth is the highest form of truth that
can be grasped by an intellect thinking in terms of subject and
object; only when this duality has been overcome, so that there
is no longer any distinction of knowing from being, can there
be an immediate knowledge of reality.
J acqucs Evola, Rivolto Contro il Mondo Modemo, Milan, 1934; sec also later
editions
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
November 20, 1941
Sir:
Those of your readers who have followed the discussion
on Myth in my own and other recent correspondence will be
deeply interested in a book entitled Das Verlorene Paradies, by
Edgar Daque, Munich, 1941, i f it is accessible. I have not been
able to see this work yet, but it is reviewed as follows in the Fall
number of Philosophical Abstracts:
Man does not originate from the animal. He represents his
own and distinct archaic form of organic nature. This human
archetype never developed otherwise than [by] branching
out in different human societies [ie, subspecies] which
potentially take Ipart in a supernatural sphere of reality. The
archetype itself could never appear visibly in physical explicit
nature and still less could it develop from a lower stage to a
higher, because already in the nature of the beyond, in the
world of first prototypes it constitutes a spontaneous
totality. This formation of the beyond, this metaphysical
world is the paradise. The knowledge of it is carried by the
myth. The myth is the deepest knowledge that man has until
to-day. (P. L. Krieger)
Assuming that by man the author means the forma humanitatis quae nunguam
peril, and not this man, this is in complete agreement with what I have
intended to suggest. . . . Our trouble is that, like Boethius, we have
forgotten who we are.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
November 5, 1942
Sir:
Mr Ross Nichols asks how the Myth can at all acceptably be
conveyed outside of a limited ring of literary sympathizers.
Here the word literary is significant; for our literary world is,
for the most part, coincident with what Professor Iredell
J enkins has so well termed the modern world of impoverished
reality. The Myth was once the treasured possession of the
whole people, whether illiterate or literate, and this still
holds good in a large part of the East; in Europe, however,
where men have been educated, it survives only precariously
in folk-lore and fairy-tale, and is a dead museum specimen in
literary circles, more concerned with human personalities and
self-expression than with Gods and Heroes. Living experience
of mythic truth can be destroyed very quickly by public school
or college education.
The answer to Mr Nichols question lies, then, in our
aesthetics and in our exaggerated valuation of literature
almost without reference to its content; just as we pride
ourselves upon our indifference to the theme of a painting, i f
we can admire it for other reasons. In other words, we are quite
willing to go without our dinner, i f only we can be charmed by
the sweet music of the dinner bell, ie, the aesthetic surfaces that
summon us to consider their theme. Our hedonistic conception
of literature has come to serve us as a sort of shell to defend
us from the truth of scripture, lest we should hear, and
understand, and be converted. Not until art is redeemed from
aesthetic interpretations, and it is once more realised that
beauty has to do with cognition, and only with emotion in
the sense that mens sine desiderio non intelligit, will the Myth
come to life again in the literary world.
AKC
To PROFESSOR WARD
Undated
Dear Professor Ward:
Rumi, Mathnawi, VI, 4578 (Gibb Memorial News Series IV
6, p 511) compares the divine hero to a hundred men
concealed in a single man (as we should say, a host in
himselF), a hundred bows and arrows concealed in a single
blowpipe. The word is naivak . . ., for which I find in stcingass
Persian Dictionary, amongst various meanings, tube through
which an arrow is projected. Rumis date is 1207-1273
(Mathnawi about 1260). For I ndras bolt (vajra) we have two
old Indian accounts of the mythological origin of the arrow*,
in one of which, which can hardly be later than 8th century bc ,
they are said to be the slivers within it (Indras bolt) that were
separated from it and became arrows. Cf Taittirva Samhita
VI .I .3.5.
AKC
* I nterestingly, an early name for Christ was Chosen Arrow.
Professor Ward cannot be further identified.
The Blowpipe in Persia and I ndia, AK C American Anthropologist, New
Series, 45, 1943.
The Symbolism of Archery, AK C, Ars Islamica, X, 1943.
To DAVID WHITE
October 15, 1946
Dear Mr White:
There must be a great deal more literature on Myth than I
know of. The main thing is to know the myths of the various
peoples, and to learn to recognize their similarities. For this,
perhaps, Lord Raglans The Hero should be considered; and, of
course, folk-tales in generalwhy are there so many versions
of the same story all over the world? So one comes to think of
an Urmythos of which all others are broken fragments; myths
are the pattern that history exemplifies.
Of my own I suggest Mind and Myth in the New English
Weekly of Dec. 24, 1942 (vide supra)-, Literary Symbolism in
the Dictionary of World Literature (also in Figures of Speech or
Figures of Thought (Luzac, London, 1946). But I do commend
J . A. Stewart, Myths of Plato (Macmillan 1905); Fritz Marti,
Religion, Philosophy and the College, Review of Religion,
VII, 1942, 41 ff (Men live by myths . . . they are no mere
poetic inventionsmost serious students of myth emphasize
that myths are not inventions); Wilbur Marshall Urban, The
Intelligible World, 1929; Plato, Theatetus 144 D; with Aristotle,
Metaphysics 982 B; N. Berdyaev, Freedom and the Spirit, 1935;
E. Siecke, Drachenkampfe, Leipzig, 1907 (p 60: unglaublich, das
heute noch jemand sich einbilden kennte, weitverbreitete Mythen
Konnen ihre Entstehur der Erftndung eines einzelnen Dichters
verstanden (p 61) ein Grundirrtu, zu glauben, der mythische
Ausdruck sei allegorisch; p 49, die Sage ist von Gottermythen
ausgegangen. Herzfeld in Mitth aus Iran 6, 1934, ridicules Frasers
interpretations of myths as mistaken explanations of phe
nomena; says Die Geburt der Geschichte ist der Tod des Mythos\
lays down sequence, mythos = ursprungliche Gottersage,
Sage = heroische Stadium, legende = Stadium in which myth is
mixed with lives of real men and so hofisch und pseudo-
historischeall like my Myth, Epic, Romance; M. P. Nilsson,
Mycenean Origin of Greek Mythology, 1932, mythology can
never be converted into history. Read all the American Indian
Origin Myths also. Also N. K. Chadwick, Poetry and Prophecy.
As for the history of literature, from Beowulf to Forever
Amber (sequence: metaphysics, tragedy, sensation) consider
that in the last stage tragedy is impossible, nothing remains but
the lovely and the horrible; tragedy is only possible where there
is a conflict between what is and what ought to be, the Hero
conquers or loses according to whether he can be what he
ought. The same in the history of pictorial art, Christian and
other; Picasso is not tragic, he only depicts the horrible. From
things universally true to our curiosity about personalities,
what a come-downas Lodge used to say, From the Stone
Age until now, quelle degringoladeV
I would rather count in Blake with the metaphysical poets
than with the Romantics.
I am afraid this is a rather brief answer, but all I can manage
now.
Very sincerely,
PS: Also Karl von Spiese, Marksteine der Volkskunst
(Jahrbuch f u r Historische Volkskunde V, VI, Berlin, 1937); J ohn
Layard, The Lady of the Hare, 1945, and The Incest Taboo and
the Virgin Archetype, in Eranos Jahrbuch, XII, 1945.
David White, Friends University, Wichita, Kansas, USA; see letter p 155.
To PROFESSOR RAYMOND S. STITES
J anuary 25, 1937
Dear Professor Raymond S. Stites:
I am having a photo of the bronze sent to you.
I can best explain my position about genius by saying that
Wagner is typically a genius in my sense, but not Bach. I
believe this really covers the ground.
No messiah is telling anything new or personal, but
fulfilling. Not only Christ, but also Buddha emphasizes this
in their own words. I am not forgetting such expressions as A
new law I give unto you, but am referring to the whole
attitude. The new law is that of the proceeding God as
distinguished from the old Godhead, and in this sense every
gospel is new, and at the same time this new is always the
same novelty, not a personal one. 1use genius, then, in the
modern sense of a person extraordinarily gifted in expression
of a personal experience. Those others such as Christ, Dante,
Dionysius, etc, are rather heroes in the Greek sense.
I have no doubt that by a further definition of terms we
might reach a clear agreement.
Many thanks for your letter,
Very sincerely
PS: I f for example, to take an extravagant case, i f anyone
accused me of genius, I should reply with Gleizes: Mon art,je
Iai voulu un metier . . . ainsi, j e pense de ne pas etre humainement
inutile.
Professor Raymond S. Stites, Y ellow Springs, Ohio, USA.
Albert Gleizes, French cubist painter and writer on art and religious themes.
To PROFESSOR RAYMOND S. STITES
J anuary 31, 1937
Dear Professor Stites:
I f you will get Etudes Traditionnelles for Dec 1938, you will
find an article by Guenon, La Porte Etroite in which the
theory of the 7 rays of the sun is stated with great exactitude
and simplicity.
AKC
Postcard to Professor Stites
The article in question was reproduced as chapter XLI in the posthumous
collection of Rene Guenons studies on symbolism, Symboles fondametitaux de
la science sacree, Paris, 1962, reprinted 1982, and would be more accessible
there.
To PROFESSOR RAYMOND S. STITES
April 12, 1937
Dear Professor Stites:
I have not yet published on the Seven Rays of the Sun, except
for a brief reference in a little book on The Symbolism of the
Dome which is to be published by Harvard University Press
soon. I have given a lecture at Ann Arbor on Is Art a
Superstition or a Way of Life? and shall send you it when
printed.
I do not by any means cite Bach as a geniusbut as
something better, a master craftsman. Wagner is a genius using
the material for his own ends rather than for its own sake.
No doubt, the end of the road is beyond all art: bccause the
reality is not in any likeness nor in any way expressible. In the
meantime Plato (etc) does not require to look directly at the
Sun before one has acquired the eagle-eye, but much rather to
look directly at the shadows and through them at the Sun.
Materialism and sentimentality imply a looking at the shadows
for their own sake. The love of fine bodies is all right: but for
those who can think of nothing nobler than bodies (St
Thomas). One can decide to play with the kaleidoscopic pattern
of things: or to see this as a pattern embroidered on a
permanent ground. The metaphysical whole or holy man
cannot make our kind of distinction between what a thing is and
what it means; all values are traditionally at the same time
substantial and transubstandal (the Eucharist preserves an
isolated survival of this once universal point of view). To speak
of the picture that is not in the colours does not destroy the
colours but adds something to the definition of what can be
experienced through the aesthetic surfaces. The whole man
does not only feel (aesthetics) but also understands (cognition)
what is expressed and to which he is attracted by the colours. Im
discussing all this once more in a long introduction to the
forthcoming book by Rowland, of reproductions of Indian
frescocsa discussion of the Nature of Buddhist A rt. Art is
not a luxury but a necessity.
Siva is by no means the only guardian of the arts. All are
referred to divine sources, in various ways.
Very sincerely,
Raymond S. Stites, Y ellow Springs, Ohio, USA.
The Symbolism of the Dome was actually published initially in the Indian
Historical Quarterly, Calcutta, XIV, 1938, and then in Coomaraswamy 1:
Selected Papers, Traditional Art and Symbolism. See Bibliography.
Is Art a Superstition or a Way of Life?, American Review, New Y ork, IX,
1937. The six lectures mentioned were published by J ohn Stevens Pam
phlets, Newport, Rhode Island USA, 1937.
Xmas Day 1943
I do not have all of Cusas works. The words Mens sine
desiderio non intelligit, et sine intellectu non desiderat are from one
of his sermons at Brixcn, my source being E. Vansteenberghe,
Autour de la docte ignorance, Munster, 1915, p 56. Cf
Bonaventura, Non est perfecta cognitio sine dilectione, I Sent, d. 10,
q. 1, q 2, fund 1 (see J -M Bissen, L Exemplarisme divin selon St
Bonaventure, Paris, 1929, p 95). . . . In other words, I suppose,
the will is involved in all real knowing; we cannot know
something in which we arc not inter-est-ed.
Cordially,
Only this paragraph was available to the editors, with no indication of the
addressee. It is included because of the importance of the citations and AK Cs
conclusion, for in any traditional epistemology it is the whole man that
knows and not only the cerebral part.
To PROFESSOR H. H. ROWLEY
May 10, 1945
Dear Professor H. H. Rowley:
Many thanks for sending me your Submission in Suffer
ing, which I have been reading with much interest. I think it
will conduce to clarification i f we equate karma with ananke and
dharma with heimarmene, fortune and destiny, respectively.
I am not sure that we ought to separate the idea of submission
in suffering from that of submission in pleasure; these are
contraries by which we ought never to be dis-tracted (see
Bhagavad Gita II. 14, 38, 57). Our only reasonable attitude
towards the contraries that fortune (by the ineluctable opera
tion of mediate causes) brings upon us is one of patience; on the
other hand, it is our part to cooperate with our destiny, if we arc
ever to reach our destination.
This patience under the slings of fortune is an apatheia in the
original high meaning of the worda not-being subject-to-
pathological-states or affections; the man who is overcome
by such being in fact pathetic. On this patience, cf Marcus
Aurelius X. 28 to the rational being [ie, obedient to the God
and Daimon within him, V. 10] only has it been granted of
freewill to yield to what befalls, whereas merely to yield is a
matter of necessity, anankaion, for all; cf Philo, LA III. 21
active and passive submission (commonly thought of as
Stoic positions, but Marcus Aurelius and Philo are essentially
Platonists, and only accidentally Stoic).
Did I send you my Recollection, Indian and Platonic? I f
not, I will do so.
Very sincerely,
H. H. Rowley, see page 75.
To THE REV PROFESSOR H. H. ROWLEY D.D.
J uly 8, 1946
Dear Rowley:
I was much interested in your Unity of OT , and fully agree
that sacrifice must bear a two-way traffic or none. The
position you argue against is closely paralleled in that of the
Orientalists who greatly overemphasize the opposition of ritual
to gnosis in the Vedic tradition. I think this over-emphasis
arises from rationalistic misunderstanding of the use of rites,
and the view of same as hocus-pocus.
Reverting to my last letter, I might suggest a glance at
Layards preface to his Stone, Men of Malekula (1942) in which
he speaks of the megalithic ritual . . . as essentially a mystery
in the sense in which the Church uses this word. Layard is
himself both a first rate anthropologist but also profoundly a
Christian (see his recent book, The Lady of the Hare).
With Kindest regards,
H. H. Rowley, sec p 75.
J ohn Layard, see correspondence, pp 42 and 226 ff.
Hocus-pocus: AK C was fully aware that this was a corruption, in more senses
than one, of words from the most solemn part of the Roman Rite Mass
(according ot the Missal of Pope St Pius V), commonly referred to as the
Tridentine Mass.
To H. G. RAWLINSON
December 10, 1946
Dear Rawlinson:
By the way, apropos of no sentience in Nirvana, the
traditional doctrine is that there is no sentience after death, the
body alone being an instrument of feelingBrhadar Up 4.5.13,
Axiochus, Diogenes Laertius, x. 64, 124, also in OT: the dead
know not anything.
Of course I cannot at all agree with your view of the Vcdic
sacrifice. In any case, the Buddhas (in S 1.169) substitution of
internal sacrifice is only an echo of the old teachings about the
Agnihotra in $A X, SB X I .5.6.3, SB X.5.4.16; cf already in RV
VI I I.70.3, na yajnair.
Very sincerely,
H. G. Rawlinson, see p 39.
The reader is referred again to Whitall Perrys remarks on pp v and vi
(cspcciall the latter) regarding A K Cs seeming blindness towards the
posthumous states which for most souls intervene between the present life
and final liberation. No sentience in Nirvana is undoubtedly and even
necessarily true, given that Nirvana is an eternal pleroma. But to say or to
imply that this can be true of all post-mortem states is to ignore Scripture and
Tradition, or to artificially oppose one teaching to another. One need only
consider the teachings on posthumous beatitude and suffering to be found in
all traditions; or, more specifically, Dantes Divine Comedy, which is full of
sentience up to the celestial pilgrims final illumination. Dr Coomaraswamy,
of course, knew all this; we can only conclude that, for reasons best known
to himself, he chose to ignore anything less than an absolutist perspective. It
is true, however, that the Vedanta is connatural with a kind of acosmism.
To MRS PHILIP MAIRET
J anuary 10, 1937
Dear Ethel Mary:
It was very good to hear from you again and to hear what you
are doing. Y our scheme of weaving history is very interesting.
But I also think you ought to go deeper, that is in the sense of
the Little Mysteries and the initiation of craftsmen (not that
this can be restored artificially, but that it is an important part
of historythe secret history of the Middle Ages, which
is so much more relevant that the dated facts). . . . Behind all
weaving lies the web of image-bearing cosmic light, the solar
spiders web.
As to the essays, I will only say I will see i f anything comes
up to write for youI am so deeply immersed in other work
that I do not like to be taken off to write anything else, tho I
have to do it sometimes (I am giving 2 broadcasts on the use of
art this month).
As to the new expression to which we are tending.
Yesbecause this is the end of the Kali Yuga, and every death
must be followed by a resurrection, of which the early signs
may be already perceptible. But this only takes place when the
seed has died. There is no life in this present civilization, and no
hope for it. For all its apparent progress it already smells to
heaven of death. Hope, or rather certain expectation, is for
what may be 500 years hence. What do we care about time?
3000 BC is just as real and present to me as now. In the
meanwhile, the most valuable thing is to preserve, as i f in an
ark, the always known truth, and to carry it over the flood.
I agree that probably the whole world will become communist
before the dawn.* But this revolt of the proletariat, this
democracy, is the last stage of rcmotion from likeness to the
Kingdom of God, where all things are in due hierarchy and
order proceeds not from below, but from above. History: (1)
Supremacy of the spiritual authority (Brahmanism, for exam
ple) and union of spiritual and royal power (priest kings of
ancient civilizations); (2) revolt of the royal power (ksatriyas,
J unkers, the Reformation); (3) revolt of the economic power
(bourgeoisie, industrialism); (4) revolt of the proletarian power
(democracy, communism)a descending scale.
In the midst of this, at all levels, it remains possible for the
individual to work out his own salvation, and that is his first
duty.
I would like once more to recommend to you (1) Eckhart (2)
works of Rene Guenon, eg, to begin with La Crise du monde
moderne; also the magazine Etudes Traditionnelles (where I also
now often publish).
I have been occupied all winter and not yet printed, what
may be little books (1) on DeificationIndian and St Bernard
(2) on reincarnation and transmigration, two very different
things, completely misinterpreted. Reincarnation is rebirth in
ones children here and now. Transmigration is a temporal
fashion of speaking of the omnipresence of the spirit, which as
it were migrates from body to another. As to deification, the
whole theme has been confused by an attachment to the
immortality of the soul. All esoteric Christian doctrine
teaches, on the contrary, that the soul must put itself to death. The
greatest sorrow of man should bethat he is. Deification is a
matter of the transference of consciousness from the soul to the
spirit; and thus only, in the words of St Paul, can we become
one spirit with the Spirit. To reach this point the whole idea
of the created soul over against a creating God must be
outgrownas Eckhart expresses it, it is Gods will that we
should become what He as God . . . is notthis is the
breaking through (J ohn, I am the door')-, as in Indian tradition,
passing through the Sun, not merely basking in the light of the
Sun, but to become a ray of the Sunwhich brings us back to
weaving, since the rays are the wrap of the Universe.
Best love from,
Ananda
*I f this opinion seems excessive (and it does not necessarily refer to the
official part of the USSR), compare it with similar views independently
arrived at and expressed in The Tares and the Good Grain, by Tage Lindbom.
Lindbom, a Swede, was for many years an official in that countrys marxist
social democratic party, and he came to reject marxism for what he perceived
to be its groundlessness and inner contradictions.
Ethel Mary was the first Mrs Ananda Coomaraswamy, and she later married
Philip Mairet who had a long association with AKC; and the couple
remained on amicable terms with him until the end of his life. Mairet edited
the New English Weekly.
To RAMA P. COOMARASWAMY
1944
My dear Rama:
The following is in response to your question about images:
it says in Exodus xx, 4: Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters
under the earth,
BECAUSE God instructed Moses with definite directions,
as in Exodus xxv, 9: According to all that I (God) show thee,
after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the patterns of all the
instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. Then God lists
the things that are proper to H I S T A B E R N A C L E : you know
by now that this world that we live in is in imitation of that world
that God lives in; now then God gives specific patterns the which
Moses received and brought to his people, for the things that
are proper for man to have and use. Anything other than those
specified by God are forbidden as subhuman, at least as unworthy of
men who worship God and take His and only His directions as
their means of living.
Chapters 25 through 31 give the most wonderful description
of what is suitable for Gods followers to do and have. At one
point Moses wonders who and how these things shall be made,
and in Chapters 31-32, it says:
Sec, 1have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of
Hur, of the tribe of J udah: (3) And I have filled him with the
Spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, and in
knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, (4) to devise
cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
(5) and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving
timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. (6) and I,
behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of
Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are
wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have
commanded thee:
Now God has provided for His tabernacle on earth (our
world) all that is proper for man to have, and the way to make
these things, as He declared in Exodus xxxi-xxxii: by those
who are wise hearted, and filled with H I S wisdom and skill.
And only that which is made by these wise-hearted, and
filled with HIS wisdom and skill can be rightly called art. Y ou
ought to know this, you who have often heard this discussed.
NOW AS TO WHY ONE SHALL OR SHALL NOT WORSHIP AN
i ma g e : A l l works of art are images of something; images arc
reminders, representations and signs. It all depends on
whether a man on seeing an image of God is such a man as can
be reminded by it o f God, or is he such a man as to be able only to see
the image (or clay) and not what it is supposed to remind him of? It
would indeed be dangerous to allow such a man to have an
image of God, for he would mistake the stone, paint-
pigmcnt, the wood, whatsoever the image is made of for his
God. (Thats rightly called the worship of an image, or
graven image.)
But there are those who use the image as a reminder, and only
when they are in the presence of the real thing no longer need the
reminder.
There is the matter of importance; rightly used, images, like
every other thing on earth, have their value, but to use the
image in place of the real thing, as i f it were the real thing, is
wrong and forbidden, e x a mpl e : When you travel by motor car,
you see route numbers on the way, these arc symbols or
images; you reach your destination, you do not take up all the
signs along the way (other people likewise use them), or do you
take up the boat or the bridge when you have crossed to the
other side of the river? Y ou use these things when you need
them, likewise images; but it would be silly to say they are no
use while you are still crossing overl
In India, it is the custom to desecrate all the clay images of the
household on Thursdays, and on Fridays you go to the bazaar
and buy fresh clay images which are taken to the Ganges and
there consecrated and made holy; these are then used in the
average home for less than a week, and once more the same
ceremony, of discarding and acquiring new images, is enacted;
this is a wonderful method of keeping people from getting
attached to the clay in the clay-image, but to use it as a reminder or
sign of the divinity it represents.
Sankaracharya was a very great scholar in India and he too
used images in the way above mentioned. Once he felt
embarassed, he thought it was childish; however, this is what
he concluded: God, be pleased to forgive me for worshipping
Y ou in this Temple through this Image, I, who know Y ou have
no special abode here, but are everywhere, and that you have
no special form, for Y ou are not this image nor are Y ou
anything.
This does not mean that he intended to change his manner of
worship, but it is an explanation that he understood that the
image was for him only a'sign post.
All the religions of the world except the J ews and Moham
medans make use of Icons, or images, or symbols.
The J ews and the Mohammedans forbade it because they felt
that the real thing should not be represented lest on the Day of
J udgement when God calls all the dead to rise, these things
will fail to come to life. And they are very strong on God being
the only and the very creator, and all the things that men make
shall not imitate the things that God made, but shall distinctly
look like something else, ie, that the symbol shall look like a
mathematical symbol or sign, so that the mistake of the
imitation for the real thing should not have the slightest chance
for existing. This is the way they wish to avoid error. But for
those who wish to risk the true use, and purpose to take great care not
to make the wrong use of images, for them also it is right that they shall
have the freedom to do what is right, and should they fail, it is at their
own peril. And they shall, of course, take the consequences,
should they make the error of thinking that the clay is other
than a sign post for the mind to use on its way to concentration
or contemplatio or Yoga.
All the religions (as I started to sjy) have permitted the use of
icons or symbols, made in stone, plaster, paint, wood, words
(which are praises of the Lord) or in any other materials
whatever, with the definite restrictions, that those things shall
be made according to the pattern showed thee and by those who
are wise-hearted and filled with the wisdom and skill that
God graces man with.
For religions other than the Christian this expression is used:
I mitation of the Eternal Idea, in other words, exactly what
the Christains say. When you read Plato, I hope in the original,
you will meet every Christian idea (including the above), but
cut more sharply and stated more poignantly. For the Greeks of
Platos time were a people who could stand for and who could
love Christ for His ferocity, but we want to make Him meek
and mild, a smooth and handsome youth; in other words, we
wish to make Christ according to our idea of what He ought to
be; it is so much easier than to try to come up to Him, and you
know we like short cuts, even to heaven. But I need hardly add
that although there are short cuts to Heaven, these cannot be discovered
by a people who adore as their Culture-Heroes the makers of
refrigeration boxes and labor saving devices, as well as man killing
implements . . . .
Rama P. Coomaraswamy, Ananda Coomaraswamys son (by Dona Luisa
Coomaraswamy) who was 14 years old at the time. It is this, of course,
which explains the atypical tone of this letter. Another unusual point is the
use of the term Moharnmadan, as this is incorrect and a usage that AKC
objected to, the correct term being Muslim.
To RAMA P. COOMARASWAMY
. J une 24, 1947
My dear Rama:
I am afraid my long letter about caste, etc, cannot 'have
reached you. To perform srdddha, or have it performed for one
by a Brahman, does not make one a Brahman. Our family is
Vcllala; this is not a well known caste name in North India, but
any Tamil you may run across will know it. We do wear the
yajiiopavita\ I have received upanayana from a Brahman in the
Punjab, and shall resume wearing the thread when we come to
India. I suggested that you should accept the offer to give you
upanayana in Bengal, but if you did not do so, there will be
other opportunities, and meantime you can always live like a
Hindu, and according to Brahman standards and ways . . . .
Our people are Vellalas, originally from Tanjore, but long
settled in N. Ceylon (J affna) and then also in Colombo. They
are Saivas\ they are given upanayana and wear the thread. We
cremate the dead and take the ashes to Benares. We keep up a
hereditary connection with Pandas at Allahabad. Our people are
usually vegetarians, and employ Brahman cooks. I once
performed by fathers sraddha, but otherwise this has been done
my other members of the family in Ceylon.
With best love,
Rama P. Coomaraswamy, as above; at this time he was travelling in India
and the Tibetan borderlands with Marco Pallis.
Yajtiopavita is the sacred thread which all the twice bom, ie, the three
uppercastes, among the Hindus begin wearing when they come of age. The
rite that confers this is called upanayana.
Sraddha is a service for the dead.
To RAMA P. COOMARASWAMY
J une 25, 1947
My dear Rama:
In two recent letters, I think I mentioned numdah as material
for kurtas; I should have said pattu (patoo), as numdah is a felt
used only for rugs. There are many nice handmade woolen
materials obtainable in Punjab.
Also, I think I wrote sraddha; I should have said sraddha. The
former means faith, the latter denotes the rite. One should be
careful to be accurate not only in translation, but also in
transliteration; to use oo for w, and so forth is slipshod.
Regarding suddha, pure (foods, etc, see in BG ch xviii). Our
inner and outer lives are bound up together, so that physical and
spiritual purity are intimately related. Ritual purity is a discipline,
something to be done and understood. Do not think of it as a
mechanical formality. In Iceland, no one turned his face
unwashed to Holyfell, and this fastidious instinct towards sacred
things can be found all over the world. It may be possible, but it is
not likely, to be fastidious inwardly only. Those who are crude
outwardly are likely to be crude inwardly. All means (Skr =
upaya, rites, imagery, etc) are indispensable supports, until one has
reached the end of the road, which is still a long, long way off
for those are most apt to believe they can do without them!
Love,
Father
Rama P. Coomaraswamy, as above.
To DONA LUISA COOMARASWAMY
November 23, 1935
Darling:
It certainly was a relief to hear from you after 20 days! I am
looking forward to hearing more about Gurukul. As to magic,
one must remember that though prevalent, it is by no means
encouraged for Wayfarers, but is a hindrance. I am just
halfway through correcting proof (mainly checking some
hundred of references) in Angel and Titan which is at last to
ajjpear, taking 47 pp of J AOS. As to Dr Ross, he made no
proper arrangements for payment, and I have to prove the
debt. (I have statements from Mr Hawes, Edgar Parker, and
Mr Holmes, etc) and in any case the estate will take some time
to settle; I shall be glad when it is donethis month I couldnt
have paid Holmes but for $50 received from College Art
Association for the I ntroduction I recently sent you (I hope you
like it, I think it quite right for its purpose). Aaron was here last
night, we had a great talk. At the close, discussing circles, he
said a circle has no ends; on the contrary I said, its ends
coincide; he saw the point but finds it hard to think in that
fashion. I hope several long letters sent a week or two back
reach you (addressed to Raj pur). Did I mention that Manus
daughter is called Rib in X, 82, 23 [presumably the reference
is to the Rig Veda]? By the way, Aarons reply was Thats
what my father would have saidI mean about the circles.
They both (Warners) ask to be remembered. We are beginning
to have light snow. I imagine its quite pleasantly cool at
Hardwar. Also it must be a really Hindu place, with pilgrims
coming and going. I may write a joint article with Prof Furfey,
of Catholic Univ, Washington, on enclosed lines. I spent $150
this month, and as I said am hoping that you can save all above
$100 against Spring and Summer. I think as I said last time, you
should probably stay there till end of April and then go to
France for a month or two. I think your dream of climbing the
pravat was good; a variant of the ladder symbolism, and
analogous to the upstream [pratikiila, pratisota, etc) journey;
uphill, countercurrent. When it gets cold up there you will be
able to get nice pattu to make up. 1shouldnt worry about what
you can read in the RV; the important thing is to get command
of the vocabulary and style, we can do the rest here. It comes
infinitely easier to me now than a year ago, and by contrast the
Upanisads and BG are no effort at all; but of course classical
Skr, which most people know better, would be harder for us.
By the way, Nala-Damayanti = Manas and Vac, etc. As you
know, there is only one story to be told. She holding her
svyamvara, own choice is the patim icchanti stri of RV and
Brahmanas.
1 wrote two days ago Death is immortal, Life mortal,
today found SB X, 5,2,3: Death is the Person in the Sun, and
the Light that shines is what is alive; therefore, Death does not
die, for he is within, therefore he is not seen, for he is within
what is alive. NB: the best translation of amrta is not
immortal, but simply living as contrasted with dying. The
devas are alive, man is so to speak dead and alive, mortal,
corruptible. Amrta rarely means immortal (Bloomfield, I
must say, already recognized this, but many have forgotten it).
Buddhist Mara = Mrtya = Gandharva = Kamadeva = Eros;
hermeneutically Amor has been interpreted as a-mors. Love-and-
Death unifies; Life divides.
With Thomas, the state of glory is not under the Sun, cf
SB X, 5,1,5: Whatsoever is on this side of the Sun, all that is
possessed by Death. It is through the Sun that one escapes;
no man cometh to the (Dragon-) Father save through Me.
26th
Y our second letter from Gurukula today. Not awfully
enthusiastic. It is difficult about Ram. I dont see how we can
possibly sacrifice our time and work to the extent it would
involve here. I was at a good school, Wycliffe College, in the
country in England, now a public school and in many respects
improved, probable cost about $750 a year. But then it would
be perfectly ordinary, it would take him so long to outgrow it
all, like it has taken me 40 years to go back to Latin for
example. It is a terrible thing any way to think of anyone going
through an education, it seems interminable. I think he would
have more at the Gurukul. After all it has Dayanandas tradition
behind it, and he was a very great man, and a very great Vedic
scholar. Aurobindo Ghose,* of Pondicherry, is also a great
man; I have some of his books here, and you may have come
across some there. Great men have developed, and will still
develop under Indian conditions, however slipshod etc.
As to adoption, i f impossible in India, thats that, perhaps we
can arrange it here. I daresay Aaron could wrangle it for us. I
have just completed a weeks real tapas and sramana, on 47 pp of
Angel and Titan, checking several hundred references; quite
exhausting, you could have helped i f you had been here! The
paper is so long and detailed as to be almost unreadable. I ts
almost a book about RV, but you will enjoy it anyway.
Helen J ohnson I have not met, but is a good scholar ofjaina
Skr, translating Hemacandras Trisastisaldkapurusacaritra. As to
fighting in RV, it is all within you, of course. There are
several passages in RV emphasizing that the whole business is
maya and lila, that Indra never had and never will have any
enemy, and moreover, making it clear that all the tools and
weapons they speak of are ndmani, ie, ideas. But RV as it
stands (like Bh Gita) is a book for Ksatriyas and therefore
exoteric and karmakanda essentially, with only here and there
jnanakanda indications; it takes for granted all that is in the
Upanisads, which represent the contemporary esoteric part,
but published later, and therefore showing some linguistic
difference. In any case there is an absolute consistency in the
orthodox teaching throughout, nothing new after RV, but
some expansion and so to speak underlining of certain
meanings. One has to take the whole and see its consistency;
there is no one word or statement that can be omitted, each
(even if only said once) is essential; like the visual image seen in
dhyana which fills the whole field and consists of parts all
equally inevitable.
Bh Gita is of course the same battle; all these battles are
exoterically external, esoterically within you; and true both
ways, for they are really external for those who see externally.
I f you really understand RV, Upanisads are unnecessary. The
great mistake most people make is to begin with the Ups and
Buddhism; i f one began with RV (as one was supposed to do in
India) there would be no latter mystery, but all the later
doctrine would be of course. The Ups are magnificent, but
all their tejas is Vedic, not a great new discovery. No more
new, and perhaps even less new, than Eckhart, As for the
stupor of those you meet, who are asayamanah, susupanah,
abridhyah, jiryya miirah, what they need is to be awakened
(budh), to be made punar yuvanam, punar sutah, quick (amrtah)
who are now dead (martyah). NB: amrta in RV is generally
alive, rarely immortal, if indeed ever; and being mortal
does not refer to the fact that one dies after full term of life, but
to the nature of our life, which is a matter of constant deaths,
day after day.
Dearest love from,
Ananda
Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy, AK Cs wife, was in India studying Sanskrit
when this letter was written.
To WALTER SHEWRING
August 6, 1947
My dear Walter Shewring:
. . . Im sorry to hear that like myself you are slowed up. No
doubt these later days have drained us all of strength, in spite of
ourselves and of such detachment as we may have acquired.
Only this week I received a very tragic letter from a man who I
had thought of as a powerful healer of othersand now seeks
healing for himself.
I think you know wemy wife and Iplan to retire to
comparative solitude somewhere in N India not later than the
end of 1948. . . .
No doubt the whole world is in for a long period of
suffering for its sins, and we are all involved, some more, some
less, in the earning of such retributionwhich would be true
enough even from a secular point of view. . . .
Sincerely,
Walter Shewring, identified on page 23.
FAREWEL ADDRESS
It seems fitting to conclude this selection from the correspondence of Dr
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy with this farewell spcech read at a dinner
arranged by some of his close friends and held at the Harvard Club in Boston
on August 22, 1947.
I am more than honouredsomewhat, indeed, overcomeby
your kindness in being here tonight, by the messages that have
been read, and by the presentation of the Festschrift edited by
Bharatha Iyer. I should like to recall the names of four men
who might have been present had they been living: Dr Denham
W. Ross, Dr J ohn Lodge, Dr Lucien Scherman, and Professor
J ames H. Woods, to all of whom I am indebted. The formation
of the I ndian collections in the Museum of Fine Arts was almost
wholly due to the initiative of Dr Denham Ross; Dr Lodge,
who wrote little, will be remembered for his work in Boston
and Washington and also, perhaps, for his aphorism, From
the Stone Age until now, quelle degringolade. I still hope to
complete a work on Reincarnation with which Dr Scherman
charged me not long before his death; and Professor Woods
was one of those teachers who can never be replaced.
More than half of my active life has been spent in Boston. I
want to express my gratitude in the first place to the Directors
and Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, who have always left
me entirely free to carry on research not only in the field of
I ndian art, but at the same time in the wider field of the whole
traditional theory of art and the relation of man to his work,
and in the fields of comparative religion and metaphysics to
which the problems of iconography naturally lead. I am
grateful also to the American Oriental Society whose editors,
however much they differed from me by temperament and
training, as Professor Norman Brown once said, have always
felt that I had a right to be heard, and have allowed me to be
heard. And all this despite the fact that such studies as I have
made necessarily lead me back to the enunciation of relatively
unpopular sociological doctrines. For, as a student of human
manufactures, aware that all making is per artem, I could not but
see that, as Ruskin said, industry without art is brutality, and
that men can never be really happy unless they bear an
individual responsibility not only for what they do taut for the
kind and quality of what they make. I could not fail to see that
such happiness is forever denied to the majority under the
conditions of making that are imposed upon them by what is
euphemistically called free enterprise, that is to say, under
the conditions of production for profit rather than for use; and
no less denied in those totalitarian forms of society in which the
folk is just as much as in a capitalist regime reduced to the level
of a proletariat. Looking at the works of art that are considered
worthy of preservation in our museums, and what were once
common objects of the marketplace, I could not but realize that
a society can only be considered truly civilized when it is
possible for every man to earn his living by the very work he
would rather be doing than anything else in the worlda
condition that has only been attained in social orders integrated
on the basis of vocation, svadharma.
At the same time I should like to emphasize that I have never
built up a philosophy of my own or wished to establish a new
school of thought. Perhaps the greatest thing I have learnt is
never to think for myself; I fully agree with Andre Gide that
toutes choses sont deja dites, and what I have sought is to
understand what has been said, while taking no account of the
inferior philosophers. Holding with Heracleitus that the
Word is common to all, and that Wisdom is to know the Will
whereby all things arc steered, I am convinced with J eremias
that the human cultures in all their apparent diversity are but
the dialects of one and the same language of the spirit, and that
there is a common universe of discourse transcending the
differences of tongues.
This is my seventieth birthday, and my opportunity to say:
Farewell, for this is our plan, mine and my wifes, to retire and
return to India next year; thinking of this as an astam gamana,
going home. There we expect to rejoin our son Rama who,
after travelling with Marco Pallis in Sikkim and -speaking
Tibetan there is now at the Gurukula Kangri learning Sanskrit
and Hindi with the very man with whom my wife was
studying there twelve years ago. We mean to remain in India,
now a free coutnry, for the rest of our lives.
I have not remained untouched bv the relieious philosophies
I have studied and to which I was led by way of the history of
art. Intellige ut credasl In my case, at least, understanding has
involved belief; and for me the time has come to exchange the
active for a more contemplative way of life in which it would
be my hope to experience more immediately, more fully at
least a part of the truth of which my understanding has been so
far predominantly logical. And so, though I may be here for
another year, I ask you also to say: Goodbyeequally in the
etymological sense of the word and in that of the Sanskrit
Svaga, a salutation that expressed the wish May you come into
your own, that is, may I know and become what I am. no
longer this man So-and-So, but the Self that is also the Being of
all beings, my Self and your Self.